Bioworld is a well-known merchandise company that offers products for everyone's fandoms, including Marvel, DC Comics, Star Wars, anime, and more. It offers items such as unique clothing to celebrate your favorite characters or properties, household items, collectibles, and even luggage, as touted last year at New York Comic-Con (NYCC).
At NYCC 2025, The Direct spoke with Bioworld's Jason Mayes, Sr. Director of Marketing and Intellectual Property, where he spoke about tackling MCU superhero fatigue in the company's merchandise and where it wants to grow and expand next.
Bioworld's Jason Mayes on Tackling MCU Superhero Fatigue
A Deeper Dive Into the IPs Is Required
- The Direct: "I'm curious, because a lot of people, you know, there is a voice out there of like, oh, superhero fatigue. We're kind of tired of Marvel. On your side, do you guys see some of that? And how do you address that? How do you offer unique things that people who are tired of it will still go, 'No, I want that?'"
Jason Mayes: I think it's a deeper dive into those IPs, right? Because Marvel is so big [and vast], right? It's so big, it's got all of these different things, and we can lean into all of them. So I think that is a way, and then again, on top of that, it's not just Marvel, like icon slaps. It's way, way, way more than that. So I think those are two ways, and we can lean into the not-as-well-known [corners of the IP].
When asked how long ahead of any particular movie's release that Bioworld knows what it's working with for product ideation, Mayes revealed that it's usually around a year:
Mayes: I would say a year is about the usual time we have to kind of live with what they want us like when, when we can actually start right, because they have all of those timelines.
Sometimes in a movie's production and development, ideas or whole scenes are cut from the film. Tough, every now and then, it might be too late in the process, such as Funko Pop!'s Hulk busting out of Hulkbuster, a moment that never made it into Avengers: Infinity War.
Thankfully, at least for Bioworld, that's not something that happens all too often:
Mayes: I mean, how often do things get scratched? I would say, not a whole lot. As long as we talk to them, and they talk to us, and we're on the same page, most of the time, we can kind of get things by moving through, and again, I would say we've been at Marvel. I don't know, the year, but 10 years, minimum, more than that. Warner Bros. since maybe 2006.
Where Bioworld Wants To Go Next With Its Merchandise
YouTube Creator Spaces & Sports May Be Bioworld's Next Target
- The Direct: "What is the type of whether it be a good collectible or what have you that you guys really want to get more into, or even reach into for the first time?"
Jason Mayes: We are moving into, like YouTuber, creator spaces, and like sports. So that's the thing. Licensees, like us often won't do that because it's bigger. But we can do it, and we can bring this kind of lifestyle to it. So I dig that. I do want to have, I would like to talk more on that, because I think that's the thing that you would see this market as a whole start to kind of move to was the licensing business for Marvel, Lucasfilm, Warner Brothers, all of these larger, larger folks will be there and will always grow. But it's good to be able to kind of branch out into these other [properties].
Mayes also commented on the process of ideating creative products for various IPs:
Mayes: So, we have teams built around every IP that we have. So it's always a deep dive. It's not [a surface level look]. It's a deeper dive. So what we like to do, but I like to say, a lot of the merch, you wouldn't even know if you did know... Normally, I mean, we have, like, a bit of those huge hits and things. But I think one of the things is like subtle fandom, and it's if you know, you know. You can also wear it wherever you want, right? Work, you can wear it out in your life, like it's a thing that you can just wear whatever it may be.
