Rubies, the largest or one of the world’s largest costume makers, is as close to Halloween’s beating heart as you can get. But a few years ago, amid the pandemic, Rubies’ heart at least appeared to come close to a halt.
The Westbury-based company that licenses costumes from Harry Potter to Spider-Man faced financing problems amid still fairly strong demand at the peak of the pandemic.
Now Rubies is back, in what may be the most important, influential Halloween sequel you’re likely to see.
Rubies Returns
Rubies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in 2020, affecting its U.S. business and some affiliates, before reorganizing and emerging later that year. Halloween companies, like most, felt the pinch of the pandemic.
The company is not only back (if it was ever gone), but continues to churn out costumes at a dizzying rate.
The heart of Halloween, in other words, still beats, after a rescue that, if it didn’t save the holiday like Christmas in the grip of the Grinch, truly keeps Rubies as Halloween’s home base.
Marc Beige, Rubies’ founder and president at the time, said that “the highly seasonal nature of our business, our manufacturing relationships in China, the chilling impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the U.S. and the global economy” were a witches’ brew, especially when financing problems emerged. “The board of directors determined that the Chapter 11 filings is our best path forward,” Beige said.
Rubies was rescued and reborn as Rubies II, led by managing partner Joel Weinshanker, founder of the National Entertainment Collectors Association (NECA), funds managed by Atalaya Capital Management LP, and members of the Rubies founding Beige family.
If you wear a Rubies II costume this year, whether or not you dress as Elvis, you can, at least indirectly, thank Elvis Presley.
Weinshanker is also the majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, managing partner of Graceland Holdings, and founder of the National Entertainment Collectors Association.
The roughly $133 million sale to the owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises helped save the company, which has its corporate headquarters in Westbury and sales headquarters in Melville. Marc Beige said the deal would save about 400 jobs.
Filings provided a window into Rubies’ business, showing the top unsecured creditor was Warner Bros., owed nearly $2 million.
They were followed by vendors Wuyi Jingjie Clothing, Sun Wah Jian Xing Plastic Manufactory and Mars Hill International Limited in China, each owed about $1 million along with FedEx. The filing allowed Rubies to continue meeting demand and moving forward.
“The future is bright at Rubies,” Weinshanker noted in a written statement after the deal closed.
Halloween does seem to be back along with Rubies (or Rubies II), as the Long Island-based licensing giant not only goes on, but grows. There are signs of a potentially happy Halloween for the industry. Season creep is catching on everywhere from Lowe’s (with Halloween goods on display starting in early September) to costume shops.
The National Retail Federation’s annual Halloween Consumer survey in 2022, a barometer for the business, projected Halloween spending would reach a record $10.6 billion, following the prior year’s $10.1 billion record.
Consumers planned to spend $100 on Halloween candy, décor, cards and costumes, slightly shy of the prior year’s $103 record.
Dressing up remains as big a part of the holiday as ever. Nearly half of consumers (47%) last year planned to dress in costume and 20% planned to dress their pet in costume in this rapidly growing sector. Meanwhile, 67% planned to hand out candy, 51% planned to decorate their home or yard and 28% were throwing or going to parties.
Halloween pop-up shops continue to appear along with Walmart and Target Halloween departments, all of which are supplied by Rubies.
The leading source of Halloween costume inspiration, according to the NRF, however, is online searches at 36%, while one-quarter last year said they would “look within retail stores” and 19% get ideas from friends and family.
Rubies has license agreements with Marvel, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, Disney, Lucasfilm and many others and continually rolls out new ones (The Flash, for instance).
The company has said licensing drives its business along with “rising interest among both adults and children in dressing up as authentic movie and television characters.”
Many people may not be going to movie theaters as much as they once did, but the desire to dress up does not appear to have dimmed worldwide. Spider-Man and Superman can still save the day, along with a little help from Elvis.
Rubies and its affiliates operate in 15 countries with distribution and sales operations in 52 countries spanning six continents.
Even more than Halloween heroes, Rubies during the pandemic may have been somewhat of a healthcare hero. The company reportedly shifted manufacturing to making hand sanitizer and personal protective equipment in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Weinshanker and NECA made acquisitions, including Kidrobot, Loot Crate, Chia Pet, and The Clapper, and made collectibles and action figures sold at retailers such as Walmart and Target.
While the hunger for Halloween costumes, if anything, is growing, times are changing as the web becomes a big part of shopping. Rubies II has a big presence at brick-and-mortar and e-commerce merchants. In addition to costumes for people, its website is now populated with quite an assortment of pet costumes. Weinshanker keeps the costumes coming. Elvis would be proud.
“We will continue to dominate the Halloween space,” Weinshanker said in a written statement after the deal closed, in a statement that appears to be true, “and make it even clearer to everyone that there is only one place like home for Halloween: Rubies.”
