From jewellery to pimple patches, Snoopy's pop culture revival explained

As a child, Clara Spars, who grew up in Charles M. Schulz’s adoptive hometown of Santa Rosa, assumed that every city had life-size “Peanuts” statues dotting its streets.

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After all, Spars saw the sculptures everywhere she went — in the Santa Rosa Plaza, at Montgomery Village, outside downtown's Empire Cleaners. When she and her family inevitably left town and didn’t stumble upon Charlie Brown and his motley crew, she was perplexed. Whatever void she felt then is long gone, since the beagle has become a pop culture darling, adorning all manner of merchandise — from pimple patches to luxury handbags. Spars herself is the proud owner of a Baggu x Peanuts earbuds case and is regularly gifted Snoopy apparel and accessories.

“It's so funny to see him everywhere because I'm like, ‘Oh, finally!” Spars said. The spike in Snoopy products has been especially pronounced this year with the 75th anniversary of “Peanuts,” aka Snoopy’s 75th birthday. But the grip Snoopy currently has on pop culture and the retail industry runs deeper than anniversary buzz. According to Sony, which last week acquired majority ownership of the “Peanuts” franchise, the IP is worth half a billion dollars. To be clear, Snoopy has always been popular. Despite his owner being the “Peanuts” strip's main character and the namesake for most of the franchise's adaptations, Snoopy was inarguably its breakout star. He was the winner of a 2001 New York Times poll about readers’ favourite “Peanuts” characters, with 35% of the vote.