As esports moves closer to the mainstream more and more brands are becoming aware of the potential within the scene. But while it seems natural that electronics or IT companies invest and sponsor esports, luxury fashion is not necessarily your first thought when it comes to esport.
Here are 3 brands you would not have expected in esports.
Armani Exchange
To kick off our list we begin with Armani Exchange. One of the many labels under the Giorgio Armani banner, the fashion brand stays true to its image as more accessible and street chic of the labels by being the one to venture out into esports.
Partnering up with MKers in 2019, they became jersey sponsors for the Italian organisation. MKers are active in several different titles among them FIFA, NBA2k and also Rainbow Six Siege.
Gucci x Fnatic
Gucci features in another team collaboration for our second entry in the list. Together with European Powerhouse Fnatic the Florentine luxury brand designed a limited edition watch. The dive watches were limited to just 100 at the price of 1150£ and exclusively sold through Gucci’s webstore.
Digital Gucci bags
But not just the very top of gaming and esports enjoys Gucci’s attention. They also took part in a special collaboration with Roblox, a game platform with an extensive modding scene and more than 150 million monthly active players. In the Roblox world Gucci ran a limited-time event involving a garden space that sold digital Gucci goods for players to use on their Roblox avatars. While the digital goods started fairly cheap they were only sold for short periods of time.
As Roblox players can resell acquired skins in the in-game marketplace the goods sold quickly became highly valued collector’s pieces. One YouTube video even caught a record price of 350,000 Robux. Which translates into a cool amount of roughly $4000. Not bad for a digital replica of a bag that you cannot use anywhere else but in Roblox.
Louis Vuitton x League of Legends
The collaboration with the highest profile in recent time was without a doubt the large League of Legends Louis Vuitton crossover in 2019. The French fashion brand not only constructed a trophy coffer for Worlds 2019, they also went on to design exclusive Prestige Skins for LoL Champions Qiyana and Senna and a clothing collection that sold out in record time.
The luxury brand was more than happy to return for another collaboration during Worlds 2020 and seems to have joined the long-term partner list of Riot for League of Legends’ most important tournament.
Will LV be back for 2021? Odds seem to be quite high as all these collaborations in our list show that esports has become one of the “easiest” ways for established brands to connect to the younger audiences. With more and more brands looking to expand into esports, we are in for more and more surprising entries into our scene.
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- Roblox Corporation secures higher valuation than both Epic Games and Bethesda combined
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Image Credits: Riot Games