Disney Consumer Products works with hundreds of licensees worldwide, a scale that could easily flatten creativity. Kim sees it differently. “At The Hundreds, we did 30 or 40 collaborations and thought of ourselves as masters of relationships. Here, it’s hundreds of relationships and friendships. If there was ever a king of collaboration, it’s Disney.”
Kim is drawn not just to Disney’s bestselling blockbuster franchises, but to what he calls its “B characters”— the obscure, emotionally resonant figures that thrive in subculture. Asia, he notes, has long understood and loved them. Walk through a Disney Store in Tokyo or Shanghai and you’ll find characters like Bianca, the mouse from 1977’s The Rescuers, or Lucifer, the cat from Cinderella, elevated into entire product universes, untethered from their original narratives.
“There’s something about looking under the rock and finding these universes no one else has thought about,” Kim says. “Being the first to share them, to proselytize them — that’s always been my mindset.” This applies to his outlook for his design teams, too. “We cannot only be inspired by the trends. We have the opportunity and the ability to drive trends because of the weight of this company and because of the weight of these brands,” he adds.
Key collaborators
Making Disney product archives more accessible to fans and designers is also part of the plan. “Vintage Disney is a universe in itself — the collectibles market, not just in terms of T-shirts, but watches and all types of product that people’s entire identities are built around,” he tells me. “There are key figures within the community. So much of that feels very familiar and native to me from a streetwear point of view.”
An outsider approach also informs how Kim thinks about Disney’s biggest icon as the company approaches Mickey Mouse’s 2028 centennial. Mickey is a squeaky-clean universal logo. But younger consumers gravitate toward characters who feel imperfect, emotional, even a little angsty.
“In the old cartoons, Mickey would scream, he’d get mad, he’d express emotion,” Kim says. “That’s how people want to feel today. I want Mickey not just to be an icon, but to be a friend — and maybe even a guide. Someone who helps you navigate uncertainty.”
Fashion and beauty, at every level, will be a key tool in reframing Disney stories and characters. Kim will be involved in all Disney’s high-end collaborations, but he’s quick to reject the idea that luxury is the only cultural driver. “A Walmart is no less important than a Coperni,” he says. “They play equal roles in the ecosystem. Disney’s about meeting people where they are.”
