Julian Crowley
In 1974, Japanese company Sanrio Co., Ltd. struck gold when it stuck the image of a mouth-less white cat with a red bow onto a coin purse. Since then, the cute feline’s popularity has exploded. Hello Kitty has become an incredibly recognizable and profitable brand, with some 22,000 official products available – one third of which are made by other companies under license. In 2003, Hello Kitty products made up half of Sanrio’s $1 billion annual sales, and the cat keeps popping up in new and quite often unexpected places. Take a look at these 15 bizarre products, which have been branded with Hello Kitty in the hopes of leveraging sales. It may be weird, but it’s good business.
