The fine folks at Life is Good are certainly sticking to their commitment to maintain distribution integrity for their brand, despite the move in to new categories that could find them in new types of retail locations. Spring ’06 will see the Life is Good entering the market with sandals, jewelry, recreational balls, and an expanded sock collection.

Management stressed they weren’t looking to expand into footwear stores with sandals and did not plan to sell the jewelry outside of their current base of retailers. With everyone talking about color for Spring ’06, LIG delivers a heepin’ spoonful in some great sandal product that extends the overall feel of the brand. They could easily rack up incremental sales by taking the designs to the family footwear channel, but the company looks to support retailers that are supporting the brand presentation.

The same holds true for the recreational ball product and the new linen shirt lines for both men’s and women’s. The men’s line also sees a new lightweight cabin short and the women’s business gets a boost with the Harmony casual/yoga collection.