By Marcy Magiera
Add Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook to the list of celebrities hoping to revive the licensed fragrance business. Byredo Westbrook Eau de Parfum, from Swedish fragrance house Byredo Parfums, is a unisex scent staking out the high end of the market. An 8-ounce bottle, available exclusively at Barneys New York, is $350. Westbrook, who is known as one of the NBA’s most fashion-forward players, last year also launched his fashion line Westbrook XO as a Barneys exclusive.
The celebrity fragrance market in the U.S. has been in decline for more than a year, hitting the likes of Elizabeth Arden and Coty. The Licensing Letter’s Annual Licensing Business Survey found that retail sales of licensed fragrances in the U.S. and Canada fell 4.5% in 2014, to $4.1 billion. That sum includes designer and corporate licenses as well as celebrities. In a validation of Westbrook’s luxury positioning, however, Euromonitor International attributes the decline in celebrity fragrances, which are predominantly sold in the mass market, in part to a larger move toward premium and super premium fragrances in the U.S.