18 Dec, 2023

The Success Launch of Barbie Movie reflects A Symbiotic Relationship between Textile Supply Chain (Yu-City) and Brands

The Success Launch of Barbie Movie reflects A Symbiotic Relationship between Textile Supply Chain (Yu-City) and Brands

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One of the best-selling movies of 2023, "Barbie", debuted in the summer vacation in July, and even now, towards the end of winter, "She, Barbie" is still echoing with a whirlwind Barbie fashion, and even "She, Barbie" has been nominated for the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, and the buzz is still going strong.

Leaving aside another movie "Oppenheimer", which is also as famous as "Barbie" and has a deep and close relationship between the two movies, the theme of the movie is too serious as it involves the real historical background of McCarthyism and “the father of the atomic bomb”, which is too much of a contrast to "Barbie". In any case, Barbie was officially launched on March 9, 1959, and during its heyday in the 1960s/70s, Barbie marked the mainstay of the American toy market, one of the brightest spots in the limelight.

Behind Barbie is a diverse group of enthusiasts from all walks of life, who are looking at Barbie with different gazes and scrutinizing attitudes. Young dreamers of all genders, office workers, executives, grassroots workers, as well as seniors who grew up with Barbie at the time and have now reached their golden years, have shaped the popularity of Barbie, from 1959 to the present. Barbie's popularity has remained strong since 1959!

Barbie does not appeal to special high-tech visual senses, but rather, Barbie is imbued with a spirituality of humanism, gender, patriarchal/male authority, maternal/female empowerment, cultural difference, family values, and a sense of self-practice and community. Whether it is a superficial process of representation or refined internalization, when we look at Barbie in the film industry and the toy industry at the same time, the empirical experiences tell us that Barbie has not suffered from obsolescence due to age!

Compared to the recent extensive coverage in the domestic news that the toy industry is facing a crisis, citing "Transformers" as an example, although each industry has its own crisis products that are not favored, but even the most popular product, if there is no clear strategic planning. In the end, it can only be categorized as a product that can no longer be eliminated. However, this is not representative of the toy industry as a whole.

In 2023, "Barbie", from a toy doll to a live-action movie, has fundamentally changed from what we know, i.e. Barbie is no longer a product of thought, but a prerequisite for thought! From Barbie's not in crisis, not going downhill, in fact, it's because the Mattel Group of brand owner has executives with the understanding who know how to work and to operate the issues! When we target Barbie's movie sells in 2023, and further to win the Golden Globes Awards in January 2024, as well as the next contest for the Oscars in March, from which we can clearly predict the Mattel group in the future of the whole year of 2024! This is a clear indication of the “bullish stock market” that Mattel Group will be experiencing in the coming year for the Barbie brand's peripheral merchandise market!

As a long-established manufacturer of fabrics for baby strollers, car child seats, and toy brands, Yu-City was unable to stay away from the market, and we had to as well as have to fulfill our duty as an upstream partner to fully support the global brand "Barbie", so that the brand could indeed demonstrate more concretely the signs of cultural fusion that textile and apparel have showed through different versions of the series of collaborations. Through the different models of the character settings, clothing styles and storylines of the brand to attract audiences of different cultural backgrounds, in order to emphasize the exchange and diversity between each other, and thus promote the brand's cultural interaction and its co-prosperity and coexistence (whether in the Barbie dolls or the future extension of the textile fabrics to the real version of Barbie), the Mattel Group and Yu-City can achieve a symbiotic effect as well as co-partner effect that both will create a co-movement which allows Barbie to continue to shine and be loved and celebrated by the brand's consumers furthermore.

The fabrics supplied by Yu-City are in line with eight of the seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, namely, "Good Health and Well-being" under SDGs 3, "Gender Equality" under SDGs 5, "Decent Work and Economic Growth" under SDGs 8, "Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure" under SDGs 9, "Reduced Inequality" under SDGs 10, "Responsible Consumption and Production Patterns" under SDGs 12, "Climate Action" under SDGs 13, and "Partnerships for the Goals" under SDGs 17, etc.

"Health and Well-being" in item 3, "Gender Equality" in item 5, "Decent Work and Economic Growth" in item 8, "Partnerships for Achieving the Goals" in item 17, which include the key elements for Yu-City to be recognized by the New Taipei City Government as the Textile Industry Friendly Workplace Award 2023 as well.

(Photo Sources: WARNER BROS. + INSTAGRAM @ BARBIE)