FunPlus Phoenix is a professional esport team that
actively participates in various local and international tournaments.
On the finals day, the team wore matching Swoosh-branded jerseys and Nike sneakers after signing a four-year sponsorship deal between Nike and League of the Legend. As part of this deal, Nike promised to analyze esports athletes and body training programs.
This deal isn’t surprising; fashion is finally starting to collaborate with esports.
The newest luxury collaboration is between luxury fashion brands and game developers.
As the industry grows, the perception of games has changed as most are fashion fans. They are willing to spend lots of money on brands that they connect with. Knowing this, various fashion brands are coming out to work with the gaming industry.
How Luxury Fashion Brands are getting into Esports
Aside from Puma, who unveiled a sock designed for specific games, Adidas has been creating uniforms and jerseys for esport teams. This cross-pollination between fashion brands and gamers is growing in urgency and bringing billions to companies.
Even though a while ago, there were only a few partnerships between fashion and esports, since last year, hundreds of new initiatives and deals have been coming up. Below are some of the tactics used by fashion brands to get into the esport world.
- Creating game-related product
- Sponsorships of events
- Sponsorships of teams
Fashion brands have woken up to the fact that esport is rapidly replacing Hollywood as a powerful force in the luxury industry. According to Statista, in 2018, the esport market size was valued a close to a billion dollars and is expected to grow with time.
Here are some of the reasons why fashion brands are supporting esports
Why Esports are emerging as Fashion Brands Go To
It is important to remember that even though most of the industries have been heavily hit by the coronavirus pandemic, esports prospered. So, why are fashion brands looking to collaborate with esports?
- A new way to showcase fashion
The fashion industry is saturated, and brands are looking for new ways to grab their clients’ attention. The fashion brands collaborate with different teams by giving them products to enhance their esport experience so that they are comfortable playing the games.
During these times, as everyone has been hit hard by the pandemic, most people are spending their time indoors playing esport games. Fashion industries are giving team players their merchandise during esport events, showcasing their products to millions of viewers watching the games
- Fashion invests big in esports partnership.
While fashion and esport may not seem like a great pairing, the partnership makes sense when you consider the customer base of each industry. The two industries are heavily relied on by young consumers, thus making the match perfect.
Once a fashion brand collaborates with a popular team or an individual player, the prices of the pieces being sold go up. Gamers are becoming the new celebrities making it hard for fashion brands to ignore the importance of esports. As the game spending goes up, so does the fashion sales.
- Fashion brands launch esport games
With the rate at which mobile technology is developing, more people own mobile games now more than ever. This partnership goes both ways, and some esport companies are now using fashion brands to launch games.
A good example is Gucci, who announced a collaboration with Tennis Clash, a mobile tennis game. This partnership will allow online players to dress their avatars in exclusive Gucci outfits and participate in special Gucci tournaments.
In 2019 December, Puma released a pair of sock to be won when gaming. It seems the fashion brands have lots of opportunities when it comes to esports. If more teams continue to land sponsors, the brands closely engage and interact with consumers on the digital channel.
The fashion industry has certainly proved that it is looking to engage with the increasing audience from the gaming world.
Summary
Reactions from consumers are overwhelmingly positive. Most esports games have a customer base of over 70 million monthly users across the globe. This is why gaming companies are now getting support with high-quality products from fashion brands.
One of the biggest challenges between esports and fashion brands is earning their fans' trust. If you create something great and use a popular team to market, then consumers are going to support the business because it looks authentic.
Gaming companies can be a powerful tool in developing brand loyalty. More and more companies will be looking for gamers to help bring traffic to their businesses, especially after this pandemic.
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