I worry that some of these brand collaborations being done right now feel a little forced. We need to work with brands that actually get us. Marvel was interested in the concept of Team Liquid players as heroes and being on a stage, going to challenge someone.Īdrian - There has to be a strategy. Collaborating with FaZe or Panda or Cloud9, you're reaching an audience that the casual gamer or stream viewer won't hit. There's no denying that the majority of these IPs that have games aren't touching the esports spectrum of gaming. Do you see more collaborations like this in the future of esports?ĭamian - From the collaborator side, not the team side - whether it's Naruto or Disney - they are looking to get into the space.
Bridging that gap between gamers and normies of the world.įaZe Clan recently collaborated with Disney. They can choose to become interested or not but that initial first step is a different marketing strategy. And then after the fact, they'll find out it's gaming or esports-related. If something is appealing to them, they'll buy it. It's interesting to me in that whether you're in the gaming space or not, consumers are just interested in things that look cool. It changes my perspective on how I look at merch and apparel and how we do it for my own personal brand and for Panda, the Smash bros lens. Walt - I'm a content creator first and merch creator. This was around the time that 100 Thieves was making waves on what apparel versus merch is. We want the product to be best as possible and the customer knows they are supporting the community.ĭamian - We were doing more merchandise than apparel at first but always had aspirations to kind of do more and lean into the apparel side. We're going past print to order and doing wholesale merch and create products that can be sold online and in person.
This year, we partnered with Pac Sun for some opportunities as well.ĭavid - We're broadening what people expect.
As a brand, we've focused on brand partnerships for apparel and merch. We have been shifting gears from just jerseys to actually having an apparel partner, moving past just blue jerseys and blue t-shirts. What is the biggest development and change you've seen from when you first started in the space?Īdrian - Three, four years ago I couldn't even imagine some of these collaborations and brand activations coming to life. There's been so much development in the last five to 10 years. John: The esports merchandise industry is super fast-changing and fast-growing. Adrian Gale - VP - Merchandising and Licensing, Cloud9.Damian Estrada - Creative Director & Marketer, TL.David Patti - Merchandise Director, More Better / Allston Melee.Walter Brandsema - Lead Producer, Panda Global, TurnDownForWalt.Reporter John Popko led a discussion called "The Story Behind Successful Esports Merchandise Campaigns," featuring some of the most creative minds in the esports merch space. We wrapped up the first day of the Inven Global Esports Conference with a panel all about merch and the esports community.
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