First BMW opened its first retail store, in Paris, last spring. And now, the brand is spreading itself around the world with a new licensing strategy that, for the first time, takes its marques outside the dealer channel with new products.

Now bearing the BMW imprimatur and logos are a variety of new licensed product lines that bring the automaker to a new range of lifestyle brand partners, including Maclaren baby strollers (coming in January) with four-wheel suspension and "ergonomic removable seat liner," Aspex sunglasses with 360-degree pivotable hinges, Group III travel accessories included BMW-branded luggage, and Ball Watch watches.

"This is something they've never really done before, but BMW decided that this [program] could really help build impressions and engage the customer," Jeff Lotman, CEO and founder of Los Angeles-based Global Icons, the brand-licensing agency working with BMW, told brandchannel.Continue reading...

"Contributing Design Editor, The Wall Street Journal. Interior designer. Founder of NettoCollection, ex-Creative Director of Maclaren Nursery by David Netto."

So reads the Twitter bio of acclaimed designer David Netto, the end bit indicating the residual fallout from his bombshell tweet on Feb. 27 announcing that he had "resigned as creative director of maclaren nursery today and am disassociating myself from the company." The abrupt resignation as creative head of the British stroller brand's nursery division came three days after Maclaren US ever so quietly announced it was seeking Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Yes, the more-affordable-than-a-Bugaboo stroller brand that also appealed to celeb parents such as Brad and Angie, that The New York Times once compared to swine flu as a "major health threat" for jamming New York's gentrified Brooklyn sidewalks, has quietly filed for Chapter 7 and apparently, forgive the pun, folding. What the hell happened that Netto forcibly ejected himself from the chic crib he had constructed for the British-owned Maclaren?Continue reading...