What Occurred: On October 26, sportswear big Nike sparked on-line buzz among the many Chinese language esports group due to its partnership with professional League of Legends participant Jian Zihao (professionally referred to as Uzi). The collaboration marks the primary time that the model has signed a cope with an esports athlete. The announcement video that includes his voiceover racked up over 2 million views on Weibo inside simply at some point.
Retired in 2020 because of continual well being points, Uzi is likely one of the most profitable League of Legends gamers to have emerged for the reason that sport’s debut in 2009. Regardless of his departure, he’s nonetheless widely known amongst native esports gamers and fanatics. Based on a press release, “Uzi is not going to solely inject vitality to the Nike group, however can even encourage extra younger folks to stay to their passions, in addition to discover new inspiration and creativity in sports activities.”
The Jing Take: Nike’s wager on the mainland’s esports market began in 2019, when the attire company signed a four-year cope with the League of Legends Professional League in China, supplying each squad with sneakers, informal clothes, and finally skilled jerseys. And now, with Uzi on board, the label is doubling down on the surging esports sector.
Based on the 2022 Asian Esports Trade Growth Report, China is the world’s largest esports market when it comes to person scale and income, contributing practically one-third of the income worldwide. Given this potential, many luxurious teams similar to Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Fendi, and Gucci have tapped the sector prior to now three years. These homes have leveraged the esports communities in varied collaborations, together with sponsoring competitions, casting gamers of their campaigns, and even launching gaming academies.
Nonetheless, because the market matures, the expansion price of home esports customers has considerably slowed down, dropping from 100% in 2017 to five.9 % in 2022, because the report reveals. As such, although Uzi is a legendary face within the historical past of League of Legends, this type of partnership is nothing new to Chinese language audiences in 2022. The payoff of the endorsement will depend upon how Nike can develop extra compelling storytelling with the esports star.
The Jing Take studies on a chunk of the main information and presents our editorial workforce’s evaluation of the important thing implications for the posh business. Within the recurring column, we analyze every thing from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese language social media.