Rétromobile New York 2026: Car licensing summit preview

Automakers have long licensed their badges onto caps and key rings. A new invitation-only forum wants them to think bigger. CART Department and X Tracks Summits will introduce the CART X Tracks Brand Collaborations Summit, an executive event on partnerships between high-end carmakers, luxury brands, retailers and the licensing community, at a VIP gathering during Rétromobile New York. Guests can preview the summit on Thursday, November 19, 4-5pm, at CART Department’s Booth 267, aboard Barbara Kruger’s school bus at the Javits Center. Attendance is by invitation, with requests to info@cartdept.com. CART Department, the art car platform founded by collector Larry Warsh — who is also Jing Daily’s publisher — is organizing the summit with X Tracks Summits, the conference series that Steven Ekstract launched in 2022. Ekstract co-founded the trade title License Global. According to the release announcing the summit, the planned New York event will look at how carmakers’ design and heritage can carry into fashion, jewelry, fragrances, real estate, hospitality, financial services and location-based entertainment, through executive conversations and case studies. Ekstract told Jing Daily the half-day program is planned for February 2027. “We also want to unshackle the traditional boundaries of licensing and get people thinking about partnerships they haven’t considered before,” Ekstract told Jing Daily. Licensed goods are growing faster than retail as a whole. Licensing International’s 2026 Global Licensing Industry Study put global retail sales of licensed merchandise and services at $389.8 billion in 2025, up 5.45%, while the broader retail market grew 4.52%. The trade body tied that growth partly to nostalgia and to consumers’ appetite for shared brand experiences. Adult buyers are a big part of that. Licensed toys reached $46.4 billion in 2025, helped by the growing “kidult” demographic, and nearly 40% of European adults reported buying toys for themselves or another adult, the study found. Ekstract told Jing Daily that post-pandemic demand for experiences and the growth of adult collecting are now coming together, giving familiar brands an opening. Ferrari, Porsche and Lego show how luxury car collaborations already work Carmakers already have working models in some of the summit’s target categories. Porsche Design Tower Miami, developed with Dezer Development and completed in 2017, started a run of car-branded residential towers in the Miami area. Aston Martin, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz and Pagani have since put their names to Miami projects. Ferrari shows how much the brand side can be worth. Its sponsorship, commercial and brand revenues rose 22% to 820 million euros ($917 million) in 2025, driven mainly by sponsorships and lifestyle activities, the company said in its full-year results. Ferrari said licenses and experiences were the main contributors to lifestyle. Its name also anchors Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, a theme park developed and owned by Miral that opened in 2010. LEGO, one of Ekstract’s examples, has brought both art and motorsport into its range. Its 1,773-piece LEGO Art set based on Keith Haring’s “Dancing Figures,” priced at $119.99, went to extended back order within days of its May 2025 launch, Brick Fanatics reported. Under a multi-year partnership with Formula 1, LEGO also built 10 drivable, full-size F1 cars that the drivers took around the circuit at the Miami Grand Prix that May. Since 2013, Warsh has assembled more than 70 one-of-a-kind art cars. CART Department’s selection at Rétromobile includes a 1971 Land Rover that Haring painted in 1983 for Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival, and the 2004 Maybach 57 that Jay-Z and Ye, then known as Kanye West, cut apart for their 2011 “Otis” video. “With X Tracks, we want to help build relationships that turn shared creative interests into meaningful collaborations,” Warsh said in the release. Classic car fair Rétromobile makes its New York debut with a fashion twist Rétromobile, founded in Paris in 1976, is holding its first edition outside France in New York, November 19-22, with Gooding Christie’s as official auction house. The Culture Shop, a cultural strategy and experiential company, is presenting CART Department’s lounge and programming at the show. That includes a fashion collaboration with Public School, the New York label Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne founded in 2008, which designed uniforms for CART staff and a limited-edition long-sleeve T-shirt sold only at the show. “It’s about more than just cars; it’s about the ideas, cultural influences, creative communities and unexpected audiences that intersect with the automotive industry,” Leslie Russo, founder and CEO of The Culture Shop, told Jing Daily.

Rétromobile New York to preview car licensing summit

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance

Upgrade to Pro

Sectors

Insights

Company

Rétromobile New York to preview car licensing summit

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance