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Lea signs licensing deal with Nickelodeon

Youth furniture will feature network's popular characters, logos

Lisa Casinger -- Furniture Today, March 23, 2009

HIGH POINT — SpongeBob is coming to a furniture sales floor near you.

Juvenile furniture specialist Lea Inds. said today it has entered into a licensing agreement with Nickelodeon/Viacom Consumer Products to develop youth furniture featuring some of the top-rated and most popular characters from Nickelodeon, including the aforementioned wearer of square pants.

Also planned are products inspired by TV shows "Dora the Explorer," "Go, Diego,Go!," "The Wonder Pets!" and "iCarly," as well designs based on the network's signature Slime.

Lea, a La-Z-Boy division, said the licensing agreement includes children's and teens' bedroom furniture, home office, bureaus, display cases, armoires and entertainment systems. The iconic Nickelodeon and Slime names, trademarks and logos are included in the agreement.

Lea said it will use kids' imagination as inspiration to develop three age-related product lines to be introduced at the October High Point Market. The lines are:

• Nick Jr. (designed for ages 3-7), which will focus on "Dora the Explorer" and "Go, Diego, Go!," and will also include classic images from "SpongeBob SquarePants."

• Nick (designed for ages 7-11), which will concentrate primarily on the Splat logo that represents the irreverent and kid-like spirit that is uniquely Nickelodeon, and will be include more stylized and silhouetted "SpongeBob" graphics.

• TEENick (designed for the tween/teen market), which will offer more sophisticated and contemporary gathering places for kids.

"Nickelodeon gives kids a home base on TV, and our new collections will soon give them a more kid-friendly environment within their own home," said Jack Richardson, president of Lea and sister La-Z-Boy company American Drew. "Nickelodeon is the leader in kids' entertainment, has universal appeal among boys and girls, and is trusted and respected by parents. It is an extremely powerful brand that will translate well into youth furniture, and we are extremely excited by the opportunity that this new agreement brings to our company."

"The Nickelodeon brand stands for all things kids, and Lea embodies this ideal within the furniture industry," said Hal Snik, senior vice president of domestic licensing for Nickelodon/Viacom. "Kids have a special relationship with the Nickelodeon brand and we're excited to bring our audiences' favorite adventures and characters from the television screen to the furniture in their bedrooms."

Lea said the new line will use high-quality features such as full extension drawers, and will retail at the middle price points. Retail shipments will begin in January 2010.

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