Brand Names Live After Stores Close

New York Times, April 13, 2009 — In the last year or so, a string of retailers have gone into bankruptcy — Sharper Image, Linens ’n Things, Circuit City and Fortunoff among them. But while the stores have disappeared, their names live on. And the companies that have breathed new life into these brand names are, paradoxically, some of the same ones that had led the stores through their dying days — the liquidators.

Sharper Image Lives -- as a Brand†

Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2008 — Retailer Sharper Image was left for dead in February. Now, four months later, the bankrupt purveyor of air purifiers and nose-hair clippers is coming back to life.

This time, though, it won't have stores with $5,000 massage chairs where customers can relax. Instead, Sharper Image will live on as a virtual brand name, its moniker rented to other retailers that want to spruce up the appeal of a vacuum cleaner, pet robot or pair of sunglasses.