Hot Ones and Blippi are the latest YouTubers to get store shelf deals

More YouTube creator brands are coming to major stores near you: interview series Hot Ones is collabing with Panda Express, and kids’ entertainer Blippi is putting out a shoe with Reebok.

These deals are, well, a big deal. Brands collaborate with creators every day, with an ever-increasing number of them recognizing the power of influencer marketing, but it’s a significant step up in commitment for companies to go from paying for a few sponsored posts to them putting a YouTuber-branded product in their stores. This is a growing trend especially in food & bev, with brands like Zaxby’s and Dunkin’ already snagging MrBeast, Nick DiGiovanni, and SypherPK to release their own menu items.

Hot Ones joins them with Blazing Bourbon Chicken, a boneless chicken bites dish that’s bathed in its signature Last Dab Apollo sauce. Interesting note: Hot Ones says Last Dab is the only hot sauce in the world made with the Apollo pepper, so it’s an innovative, one-of-a-kind product, which may have drawn Panda Express’s attention, since the chain has been experimenting with spicier and spicier dishes.

If this partnership sounds familiar, it’s because Hot Ones (whose channel First We Feast has 13 million subscribers and generates over 100 million views per month) first hooked up with Panda Express for a small regional test of this dish at the end of 2023. Apparently that test went well, because Blazing Bourbon Chicken is now rolling out to every Panda Express location in the U.S. Hungry customers can grab it starting Sept. 4.

Blippi, meanwhile, is celebrating his 10th YouTube anniversary by releasing a four-piece footwear collection for kids. Reebok snapped up that deal and is putting out the preschool- and toddler-sized shoes on its website and in “select retailers worldwide” starting Sept. 3.

The four shoes are inspired by various aspects of Blippi’s YouTube presence, where he has 20 million subscribers and has netted over 250 million views so far in August alone. There’s an orange-and-blue colorway that mimics Blippi’s own outfit, a “Classic Leather” edition with Blippi graphics, a “Zig N Glow” edition with lyrics from his popular song “I’m an Excavator” printed on it, and, finally, a Meekah edition, named after Blippi’s best friend who joined the channel in 2021.

These creator-made additions to big brands are making the world of digital content ever more ubiquitous. You already can’t walk into a Walmart or gas station without seeing Feastables, Joyride, and Prime (though two of those are now pretty contentious), and with creators commanding more viewership than ever, we expect to see their products on more and more shelves.