Nike faucets its first esports participant, China’s League of Legends professional Uzi | Digital

What Occurred: On October 26, sportswear large 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 often known as Uzi). The collaboration marks the primary time that the model has signed a take care of an esports athlete. The announcement video that includes his voiceover racked up over 2 million views on Weibo inside simply sooner or later.

Retired in 2020 as a consequence of continual well being points, Uzi is likely one of the most profitable League of Legends gamers to have emerged for the reason that recreation’s debut in 2009. Regardless of his departure, he’s nonetheless widely known amongst native esports gamers and fanatics. In line with a press release, “Uzi is not going to solely inject vitality to the Nike group, however may even encourage extra younger individuals to stay to their passions, in addition to discover new inspiration and creativity in sports activities.”

The Jing Take: Nike’s guess on the mainland’s esports market began in 2019, when the attire company signed a four-year take care of 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. 

In line with the 2022 Asian Esports Trade Growth Report, China is the world’s largest esports market when it comes to consumer scale and income, contributing almost one-third of the income worldwide. Given this potential, many luxurious teams reminiscent of Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Fendi, and Gucci have tapped the sector previously 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. 

Nevertheless, because the market matures, the expansion price of home esports customers has considerably slowed down, dropping from one hundred pc in 2017 to five.9 p.c in 2022, because the report reveals. As such, although Uzi is a legendary face within the historical past of League of Legends, this sort 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 stories on a chunk of the main information and presents our editorial workforce’s evaluation of the important thing implications for the luxurious trade. Within the recurring column, we analyze every part from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese language social media.