Tinned seafood company Fishwife recently partnered with U.S. grocery chain Whole Foods Market to create a limited-edition cotton tote bag, marking a collaboration Fishwife CEO and Co-Founder Becca Millstein called an “incredible honor.”
“We were already stoked to be part of their 'Kitchen Couture' trend forecast earlier this year, so when they came to us to collaborate on their first-ever retail merchandise partnership, it was an immediate yes,” Millstein told SeafoodSource.
The totes did not take long to catch on with shoppers, as Millstein said they quickly began flying off the shelves.
"It’s been wild to watch. The response was so far beyond our wildest expectations: 70 percent of our total inventory sold out on the very first day, and we hit a 99.3 percent sell-through rate by the end of week one,” Millstein said, adding that the bags have since popped up on eBay for “resale at crazy markups.” “You always hope a launch will resonate with your community, but seeing people swarm the aisles with such excitement has been an incredibly affirming experience for Fishwife as a brand.”
Millstein further explained Fishwife’s and Whole Foods’ values are deeply aligned, especially their shared commitment to high-quality products and sustainable sourcing, so the collaboration gave Fishwife an “amazing opportunity to take the vibrant, joyful world we've built inside the pantry and bring it out into the physical world alongside a retail partner we deeply respect.”
The canvas totes essentially function as walking billboards, Millstein said, but in a way that feels completely organic and design-forward.
"When someone carries our tote to the farmer's market or a coffee shop, it’s a physical touchpoint that sparks curiosity in the real world. Someone might see the bag, love the aesthetic, and then naturally gravitate toward our colorful tins the next time they are walking down the canned goods aisle at Whole Foods,” she said. “Making Fishwife a recognizable piece of people's daily routines is a really effective way to introduce the brand to new shoppers.”
Fishwife Illustrator Danny Miller designed the totes, which are available in three sizes at Whole Foods stores across the country.
The Whole Foods collaboration came as Fishwife rolled out another partnership with restaurant chain Sweetgreen.
Sweetgreen recently debuted a limited edition Sweetgreen/Fishwife Summer Niçoise – a salad that comes with a custom co-branded tin of Fishwife Albacore Tuna with Spanish Lemon for guests to open and add themselves.
This is the first time Sweetgreen, which operates more than 285 restaurants around the country, is featuring tinned fish on its menu, and it also marks Fishwife’s first national restaurant collaboration.
The dish is the centerpiece of Sweetgreen’s Summer of Fish promotion the chain has dubbed a “late-summer menu moment celebrating bold, seafood-forward flavors.”
“Fishwife has built an exciting brand around exceptional tinned seafood, bold flavor, and thoughtful sourcing,” Sweetgreen Chief Concept Officer and Co-Founder Nicolas Jammet said. “We saw an opportunity to create something that went beyond a traditional ingredient collaboration by making the tin part of the meal itself.”
