Esports and gaming getting more attention from fashion companies

Smart people in fashion companies have started to realise esports and gaming market is a huge and unexplored chunk of market for them, dominated by Gen Z and millennials who love to spend money on their hobby. One of those fashion companies is Puma who spent last 18 months signing four deals with various esport teams and gaming companies. One of those deals is with the South Korean Gen.G Esports. Puma provided jerseys and co-branded clothing line.

Esports and gaming market is not slowing down any time soon. Now worth around 160 billion USD, it is very attractive to investors from industries you would never connect with gaming. By the end of 2020, it’s estimated to reach 2.7 billion players. To better understand this segment, Puma even created a separate division within the company called Esports and Marketing Innovation. Their senior strategist, Matt Shaw, says as much as 85% of US male Puma buyers are gamers. The more of them become esports fans, bigger the potential.

Esports fans are fashion and beauty product consumers

Gen Z and millennials are surprisingly large consumers of fashion and beauty products, eager to spend their money on both digital and virtual products, being within the game or in real life. Naturally, such behaviour is catching brand’s attention. On the other hand, female gamers are rising, which represent new segment of potential audience and marketing opportunities for brands such as Puma. Although data is missing on how much gamers are spending on luxury fashion brands, due to recent development regarding fashion clothing and gaming companies collaborations, we can draw a conclusion they have a taste for fine clothing.

It actually makes sense when you think about it. Gaming is not like it was 20 years ago, when single player games were all the rage and image of a gamer was that of a lonely guy in his small room. Streaming and esports events have brought gamers in front of millions of people, naturally, their image plays a huge roll. Even riskier games have “live versions” now-a-days, where you play with real people instead of a computer, so if you go for a round of live baccarat online, you would want to dress up just like if you’re going to a brick-and-mortar establishment.

Purchase for clothes is often driven by urge to express allegiance or fandom, so naturally, many fans will go for clothing brands their favourite athletes are wearing. On top of that, fans often look positively on big brands collaborating with sports teams, as it gives them additional recognition and social value.

Beauty brands have even more potential

Once first leagues and organisations were established, investors started to see new opportunities, primarily apparel, an unexplored territory and consumer touchpoint. For example, New York esports organisation Andbox hired Mary Clark, an ex Ralph Lauren consultant with experience as lead technical designer together with Maxwell Osborne. It showed Andbox recognised fashion products as an opportunity they wanted to take seriously by employing experts in the field. Andbox is just one of the esports organisations that dared to dab into finding touchpoints between the fashion market and gaming world.

And while fashion brands have already entered gaming scene, beauty brands have even more opportunities since luxury, big name products are still unaffordable to most people. With steep growth curve, esports and gaming scene will bring new investments and collaborations, ultimately transforming the gaming industry forever.

The editorial unit