YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) Joins Ridge as a Board Member & Chief Creative Partner

Ridge

Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, is joining Ridge, a wallet and accessories company (one of my favorite brands), as an Exclusive Board Member, Equity Investor, and Chief Creative Partner. As one of the top YouTubers (with over 18 million subscribers), especially in tech reviews, MKBHD’s day-to-day responsibilities are still to be determined. However, he’ll help with brand strategy and design limited edition wallets and accessories.

MKBHD is joining the company six months after CEO Sean Frank shared on X that he wanted to hire a creator in-house, stating the need for Ridge to be a ‘content-first brand’ to be the “next Yeti.” Ironically, he even offered MKBHD the role back then.

Why It Matters: With MKBHD serving as a Chief Creative Partner, he’ll be able to assist Ridge in achieving its ‘content-first’ company ambitions by leveraging his skills and experience in creating and distributing content and building a community. As one of the most prolific reviewers across the internet, he can also use that knowledge to help Ridge develop new and existing products and add more credibility to the company.

Reasons like these have accelerated the trend of creators taking on in-house roles, including traditional creative and marketing roles or roles developed specifically for them. Shares of equity and spots on boards have been rare occurrences, but they provide creators like MKBHD with more incentive to surpass traditional creator-brand relationships, as the long-term success of the company also benefits them.