Esports brand partnerships you should know about

The global esports market has experienced incredible growth over the past couple of years, growing from revenues of $250 million in 2015 to over $1 billion today.

What’s more, with projections pointing to this industry hitting $1.8 billion by 2025, few deny that the era of mainstream esports is finally upon us. 

Now sports fans are just as likely to place free bets, such as those provided through comparison platform OddsChecker, on the outcome of a CS:GO tournament as they historically would an NBA play off game, and the $200+ billion dollar sports apparel industry is energetically making inroads into the sector with a growing number of high profile collaborations.

Below we’re going to take a look at the ones you should know about in 2022.

G-Shock

Few timepieces have successfully ingrained themselves within modern hype fashion culture like the legendary Casio G-Shock. Short for ‘Gravitational Shock’, the G-Shock is the original rugged digital watch – yet its chunky styling and bright colourways have made it a firm favourite with the fashion forward Generation Z. 

As such, G-Shock’s limited edition esports collab is highly prized among gaming fashionistas.

Created to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the foundation of FaZe Clan, one of the world’s most prestigious and successful FPS oriented teams, it’s decked out in a red camouflage print that echoes FaZe’s iconic livery, features the FaZe Clan logo on the back side and even incorporates a backlight display that reads ‘FAZE UP’ when activated.

adidas

adidas is among the largest sports apparel and lifestyle brands in the world today, with its instantly recognisable symbol and triple stripe design feature adorning leading athletes from the pinnacle of the sporting world. 

As such, it should come as no surprise that the German company has eagerly sought to integrate itself with the rising esports phenomenon through a number of high profile collaborations.

Perhaps the most visible of these is its ongoing series of limited edition runs of sneakers designed with the help of Tyler Blevins – who competes under the name Ninja. 

Blevin has a net worth of over $40 million, and commands the largest subscriber base of any user on the Amazon owned Twitch platform, making him the most visible esports athlete competing today.

Coca-Cola

The beverage company Coca-Cola is no stranger to high profile sponsorship deals, and has begun its work with the world of esports by partnering with no other than Riot Games – the esports developer powerhouse beyond major titles League of Legends and VALORANT – to sponsor a new competitive circuit. 

This new round of tournaments is for League of Legends’ mobile spin-off title, Wild Rift, and will see Coca-Cola positioned front and centre in branding and sponsorship associated with what analysts are reliably certain will become a major annual competition in the coming years.

Gucci

An interesting facet of emergent esports collaborations we’re seeing is that, in addition to more obvious partnerships such as those listed above, there is a wave of luxury brands looking to associate themselves with this sector, with Ralph Laruen and Louis Vuitton committed to ongoing relationships with some of the biggest organisations in competitive gaming. 

But perhaps the single greatest example of this trend is Gucci. The luxury design house has been working closely with leading European esports team Fnatic to develop a range of unique products.

Thus far, we have seen the release of an extremely exclusive watch that was limited to only 100 pieces. Each retailed for over $1,500 and sold out rapidly. 

It’s noteworthy that many of these brands tend to associate themselves with conventional sports that are deemed to be more aspirational, such as Formula 1, than the likes of soccer or basketball. 

Whether we’ll see Rolex or Moet announcing collaborations with Counter-Strike teams is an open question, but the fact that competitive gaming has attracted brands outside of the fold of more ‘athletic’ sports is noteworthy and could point to esports lifestyle brands moving in quite distinct directions from their more mundane physical counterparts into the 2020s and beyond.