A particularly fascinating partnership emerged in the world of esports yesterday with the announcement that JACK & JONES has teamed up with Astralis.
The sponsorship will see JACK & JONES design a new jersey for the Danish team, with the ‘first ever performance optimised esports jersey’. There’ll also be a wide range of activation initiatives such as fan hangouts, meets, competitions and a further merchandise collection co-designed by JACK & JONES and Astralis.
JACK & JONES also becomes the official clothing partner of Astralis with exclusive rights to communicate and supply clothing that ‘enhances the players’ look and performance’.
Henning Nielsen, JACK & JONES stated: “We are truly impressed by Astralis’ professionalism and strong performance, as well as their dedication – those are exactly the values JACK & JONES believe in. Partnering up with Astralis to create and present something new and unique to the esports scene is a natural expansion and continuance of a strong company history within collaborations.
“Besides an obvious value match, we share the approach to always strive to be the best within our game, and the creation of a new player’s jersey and performance uniform with the unique requirements in esports is a perfect example of just that.”
Jordi Roig, CCO of RFRSH Entertainment noted: “Astralis is all about constantly improving, finding the edge and optimizing their performance through professionalism, dedication, practice and a healthy lifestyle. One of the areas, where esports has yet to develop is the clothing and the gear the teams play and practice in. Like we have done in other areas of performance optimization, we have been looking to find a partner with the expertise and desire to design and produce a new jersey/uniform and training line especially for esports based upon the demands and wishes of the players and we have found that in JACK & JONES.
“On top of a shared desire to win, through their position as Europe’s leading producers of menswear and -fashion with a vast range of styles and designs, JACK & JONES is also the perfect match for the Astralis players, who all have very different styles, both in the game and outside.”
With this sponsorship, Astralis finds itself alongside the likes of Leicester City FC goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and F1 driver Kevin Magnussen.
Nielsen discussed why they decided to make this move now: “The esport industry is experiencing tremendous growth, not only in terms of active players and fan communities, but also as an entertainment product. Therefore, we see a great opportunity to become part of this development.
“Esport is expected to reach 500 million fans by 2020 and will thereby outgrow basketball´s 400 mill fans by 2018.”
The merchandise collection and the new jersey will be presented at an exclusive fan event in connection with BLAST Pro Series in Copenhagen in November 2017. Here, fans will be invited to meet the players and be the first to get the unique shirt, co-designed by JACK & JONES and the Astralis players.
Esports Insider says: This is excellent news with JACK & JONES amongst Europe’s leading menswear brands. Moreover, major fashion and clothing brands are something currently few and far between in the wider esports space. This is also great timing ahead of our next ESI Forum, which will have a panel discussing the esports and apparel opportunity on September 28th in London. Click here to find out more.