By Mark Seavy

The America250 licensing program generated $110-$115 million in retail sales this year through June 30, with “random products” proving to be strong sellers, according to Global Icons President Bill McClinton. Global Icons administered the licensing program for the bipartisan initiative, which celebrated the country’s 250th anniversary.

That included Wincraft’s five-gallon buckets at Home Depot, WCN Group and Logo Brands’ outdoor accessories like drinkware, and Certified Collectibles Group’s grading certification labels for coins, McClinton said. Flags from licensee Annin Flagmakers and Valley Forge Flags and Fabritech’s licensed eCommerce site also generated strong sales.

Those retail sales were in addition to $15-20 million in America250 revenue from 2025, according to McClinton. There were 226 licensees for the America250 licensing program, which had royalty rates ranging from 5% for cobranding to 12% for apparel, he said. Additional royalties will be collected for the period ending July 31.

While there were brisk sales, the “sense of euphoria” that accompanied the U.S. bicentennial in 1976—when there were few if any licensed products—was seemingly absent from the 250th anniversary, McClinton said.

“It seemed [during the bicentennial] our whole lives were filled with it, and it permeated everything,” McClinton said. “Certainly it [the 250th] didn’t feel like what it could have been, but we sold a lot of merchandise.”

There were some categories that saw slower sales, however.

For some of those categories, such as beach towels and textiles, slower sales were attributed to retailers opting instead for generic, non-licensed, or private label merchandise. In other categories like party goods, t-shirts, and food and beverages, performance was dependent on the buyer and retailers. Walmart, for example, sold through 70-80% of WCN’s products, but didn’t reorder owing to a seasonal assortment, McClinton said.

“In some cases, retailers just decided they wanted to put generic red, white, and blue product on the shelf independently,” McClinton said. “We always knew that was going to be a risk anyway because we didn’t own the word America and the colors red, white, and blue together. And some retailers didn’t want to pay the extra royalty. It may not have saved the consumer anything, but some retailers wanted to make a little more margin.”

As a nonprofit supporting arm of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, revenue from the America250 program was earmarked to fund events marking the 250th anniversary. Congress established the Commission in 2016.

Additionally, there were also products connected to Freedom 250, an organization set up by President Trump’s executive order in January 2025. A portion of its revenue came from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Freedom 250 event on the White House lawn on June 14.

Among the suppliers that developed products for the UFC Freedom 250 event were collabs with ID Supply Co., Warren Lotas, Anti-Social Social Club, and Culture Kings for limited edition t-shirts, hoodies, and hats. Martial arts streetwear brand Venum supplied the UFC Freedom 250 walkout jerseys and fighter kits and New Era provided hats. UFC spent about $60 million on the event and had a 6,000-square-foot pop-up shop on the White House lawn. Freedom 250/UFC apparel was also carried by Tilly’s, Buckle, and Pacsun, with the latter this week offering a 15% discount on a UFC Freedom 250 t-shirt.

How much sales might continue past the July 4 celebration isn’t clear. But one licensee, FirstGear, signed on for diecast trucks with sales expected to start in 2027.

Additionally, Nassau Candy’s America250 AmuseMints and chocolate bars were being offered on the company’s website with 50% discounts. The collection also was available at Hudson News stores in some airports.