Robert Reda, creator of the She's Charmed and Dangerous line.
As president of the design firm Crank2 and the father of a 13 year-old daughter, Robert Reda found himself spending a lot of time in shopping malls. Visiting all the major tween retailers, he noticed what he describes as "a lack of product coordination in mid-tier."
"In January of 2000," he recalls, "the whole industry was talking about Tween -- and that was obviously the segment of the market to target." Reda and his business partner Susan Maillis set out to develop and create a lifestyle brand that would specifically resonate with the tween consumer -- "something multi-cultural that would be a nice message for girls that age" -- and She's Charmed and Dangerous was born.
"In licensing," he continues, "enthusiasm at retail for entertainment properties has slowed down. The reason we were embraced so enthusiastically is that people were looking for something new and fresh and untapped. We were embraced by such an A list of licensees -- people who were used to working with major studio entertainment properties -- and obviously, the more great licensees you add to the list, the easier it is to get other good ones."
