When eSports and streetwear come together

Gaming VS streetwear, nerd VS fashion victims. At first glance, two distant galaxies, two parallel lines that can never be met. But, with a scrupulous eye, even the most skeptical will notice that between these two worlds there are more points in common than divergences, and even brands have begun to notice and exploit the trends of recent years.
In fact, these two markets have had a positive trend so high that they have become part of popular culture: the eSports market has been estimated at a value of almost one billion dollars in 2018 and has grown by 59% in the last 5 years. As a result, fashion brands have begun to take an interest in the eSports world with collaborations, sponsorships, campaigns, etc.

Nike, for example, came into eSports world, financing the League of Legends Pro Battle, the competitive Chinese tournament of the Riot game. There's talk of a nearly $ 144 million deal. But it is not the only action in the gaming field accomplished by the brand: not wanting to be "alone" in the back, Nike has also wanted to involve one of the most popular Chinese League of Legends propellers currently, Jian "Uzi" Zihao, champion of the team Royal Never Give Up,  for the "Dribble &" campaign with LeBron James.

Other brands, however, have decided to collaborate with some proplayer teams to create a real line of merchandising, as already happens for the football teams: it is the case of Champion and Kappa, who have designer of the "uniforms" of the FaZe Clan (a competitive team of Call of Duty, FIFA, and many other games) in two wonderful collaborations. 

Drake has decided to combine his passion for fashion with that of eSports, becoming co-owner of 100 Thieves, a team that is part of the competitive League of Legends and Clash Royale and has its own clothing line: it was this combination, in fact, to attract the Canadian rapper, and this is what the founder of the brand, Scooter Braun, former player at a competitive level, wants to aim everything:

"With the support of Drake and Scooter we will build a long-lasting brand on the back of the content and clothing that our fans have learned to love, aggressively expanding into other games, expanding our clothing business and building a training first-class manager".

Shortly, these two worlds, which in the 90s seemed to travel on two completely different tracks, now find themselves on the same train, with proplayers becoming influencers and dictating how to make fashion, trying to grab the best collaborations and sponsorships on the market.