Fab Factory Studios has taken a strategic stake in Milkyway Brands, the Los Angeles-based merchandise and achievement company, and moved the operation into dedicated warehouse space on its North Hollywood campus. The investment signals a broader shift in entertainment economics: creators now view merchandise as an actual business line, not an afterthought.
Fab Factory has spent the past decade constructing one among Los Angeles’ largest privately held production ecosystems. The corporate operates greater than 120,000 square feet of production, post-production and event infrastructure across North Hollywood and East Hollywood. Its client roster spans SZA, will.i.am, The Chainsmokers, Post Malone and Hit-Boy in music, plus film and tv projects including Joker, Venom and The Rings of Power.
The Milkyway investment extends that infrastructure right into a recent revenue stream. By housing Milkyway’s design, manufacturing and achievement operations under the identical roof as Fab Factory’s studios and post-production bays, the businesses have created what amounts to a vertical merchandise pipeline. An artist recording in Fab Factory’s studio can move directly into Milkyway’s production space to fabricate apparel bearing their brand.
The Merch Gap
Milkyway Brands was founded by Franco Infante, who scaled the corporate from a phone-case startup right into a full-service merchandise operation serving artists, creators, sports properties and types. His client roster has included Jhené Aiko, A$AP Rocky, Kevin Hart, Anderson. Paak, the LA Clippers and Jordan Brand.
The corporate identified a transparent market gap. Most artists outsource merchandise to third-party vendors scattered across multiple supply chains, creating delays, quality inconsistencies and better achievement costs. Milkyway controls all the process in-house: apparel design, manufacturing, decoration and drop-ship achievement.
In 2025, Infante launched Prjct Blanks, a proprietary line of premium blanks manufactured and finished on Milkyway’s own equipment. The corporate can be constructing Prjct Merch, a Shopify-connected platform that enables customers to upload artwork, receive quick pricing and route jobs directly into production.
Capital and Speed as Competitive Benefits
The Fab Factory investment brings each capital and artistic adjacency to the Milkyway operation. Tai Savet, who led the business acquisition, joined as an investor alongside Ketrina “Taz” Askew, longtime manager of Grammy-nominated artist Jhené Aiko, and Chris Cyre, a music and merchandise veteran.
For Fab Factory chairman Steven Fabos, the strategy builds on a proven playbook. Before founding Fab Factory, Fabos began Steven Charles, a gourmet dessert company that became the private-label supplier behind Starbucks’ cake pops and was later acquired by Bain Capital-backed DessertHoldings. He has consistently pursued vertical ownership across his business ventures.
“Quality becomes defensible while you own the infrastructure,” Fabos said. “Milkyway has the identical DNA: own the product, own the method and construct something that may scale without losing its standard.”
The Creator Economy Gets Serious
The deal reflects a maturation in how artists view merchandise revenue. Creators aren’t any longer treating product as a peripheral brand extension. Apparel, blanks and limited-edition merchandise at the moment are core business lines with real margin potential.
Infante said creators increasingly demand that merchandise quality match the standard of their content. An artist with a worldwide fanbase cannot afford to sell low-quality apparel bearing their name; it damages the brand. By controlling manufacturing, Milkyway ensures every product meets the production standard the brand requires.
Savet, who led the acquisition, framed the partnership in those terms. “Fab Factory sits on the source of culture. Milkyway gives that culture a product engine. When those two businesses operate under one roof, every recording session, campaign, fan moment and brand activation has a direct path to commerce,” he said.
The Economics of Ownership
From a business standpoint, the investment addresses a structural problem in creator monetization. Artists have historically ceded merchandise revenue to third-party operators in exchange for outsourcing operational complexity. By moving that function in-house, Fab Factory and Milkyway are capturing margin at multiple points: manufacturing, decoration, achievement, and potentially platform licensing through Prjct Merch.
The campus consolidation also improves operational efficiency. A brand can now shoot content, produce video, design merchandise and manufacture apparel without coordinating across multiple vendors and provide chains. That speed translates to faster time-to-market for limited-edition drops and faster inventory turns.
For Fab Factory, the investment extends its role beyond studio operator right into a comprehensive entertainment infrastructure platform. The corporate now owns the total creator pipeline: content creation, post-production and commerce achievement. That ownership structure increases customer switching costs and makes Fab Factory a more helpful strategic asset for entertainment firms and management firms searching for integrated production services.
Terms of the investment weren’t disclosed.