North American esports organisation TSM has teamed up with anime streaming service Crunchyroll to collaborate on a range of merchandise for the show My Hero Academia.
The collaboration, which coincides with the launch of the anime’s sixth season, features a range of products including hoodies, t-shirts, mousepads and keycaps.
Anime-inspired esports collaborations have become incredibly popular over the last couple of years. Most notably, 100 Thieves collaborated on a limited Attack on Titan merchandise drop, meanwhile, Naruto has previously teamed up with Team Liquid, FaZe Clan and HyperX. This is TSM’s first-ever range of anime merchandise.
According to an announcement, the apparel looks to utilise My Hero Academia’s artwork whilst also integrating TSM’s symbolic black and white colours.
Fans will have the opportunity to preview and purchase the merchandise at Twitchcon San Diego, which commences on October 7th. For those who can’t attend, the collection will be available online on October 18th through TSM’s shop.
Discussing the new collaboration, Erik Marino, Vice President of Apparel for TSM, commented: “The world of My Hero Academia feels very fitting in how it parallels esports and TSM.
“Players training in the academy to rise and become pro, we often think of some TSM players, like Imperial Hal and Solo, as full-fledged pro heroes with their own special quirks.”
From a commercial standpoint, 2022 has been a relatively quiet year for the North American organisation. TSM’s most notable partnership occurred in July when it teamed up with automobile brand GMC. In the same month, Riot Games issued a fine to TSM FTX CEO Andy Dinh following the conclusion of an investigation into the CEO.
As a part of the ruling, the CEO is on probation for the next two years and an independent monitor will operate a tip-line for TSM staff and players.
