There's been a big twist in the crafting world! This week's BL Business Branding newsletter explores a recent intellectual property acquisition that retail giant Michaels hopes will help them sew up the creative marketplace now that JOANN customers are looking for a new place to call home.
In January 2025, craft and fabric retailer JOANN filed for bankruptcy for the second time in a year, citing continued financial struggles and inventory disruptions. Shortly after, the company announced it would take things a step further and close its doors permanently, much to the chagrin of its customers. Despite the company's financial woes, loyal crafters had remained fans of JOANN's house-brand crafting supplies, most notably the Big Twist® yarn line. With JOANN going out of business, makers across the country were left wondering what would happen to their favorite crafting supplies. Enter: The Michaels Company, another crafting powerhouse, and JOANN's former competitor.
With JOANN on its way out, Michaels Stores saw a crafty way to expand both its client base and customer offerings. Announced publicly on June 5, 2025, Michaels has acquired all of JOANN's intellectual property and private label brands, making Michaels the go-to destination for all of JOANN's former customers. The acquisition comes amid Michaels' recent push to expand its fabric and sewing options and will see over 600 new products hitting the company's shelves. In addition to the products and house brands, the deal also included JOANN's trademarks, website, and even the "JOANN" name.
JOANN.com now redirects to a dedicated landing page on the Michaels website to welcome former JOANN shoppers, acclimate them to their favorite product's new home, and update them as the newly acquired items become available.
What Can Businesses Learn From This?
Intellectual property is more than just brands and logos, it can be anything that makes a company and what it offers unique. The lessons here are two-fold, as each company has a different perspective on this deal.
For JOANN's, certainly, the idea of shuttering your business is not a part of the growth plan anyone draws up. However, by creating and trademarking its house brands and protecting the exclusive use of its branding and intellectual property, JOANN was able to preserve its value, even in the face of repeated bankruptcies.
For Michaels, this acquisition is a great opportunity to jumpstart its planned expansion into fabric offerings by acquiring products that are already known and loved by an existing customer base. Rather than running through the trial-and-error process of developing its own offerings or testing different products from third parties on the shelves, Michaels already has everything it needs to grow its product offerings with brands that already have its audience's stamp of approval.
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