We Are Esports

Becoming a Star

Avatars and Skins

Skins are the clothes and accessories of the digital world.

In 2021, Balenciaga partnered with Fortnite in a groundbreaking collaboration between luxury fashion and gaming. Exclusive in-game outfits mirrored Balenciaga's designs, while a limited physical collection of hoodies and shirts with Fortnite branding brought virtual style into real life.

In 2019, Louis Vuitton partnered with League of Legends in a collaboration that united luxury fashion and esports.

Nicolas Ghesquière, the brand's artistic director, designed exclusive in-game skins for champions such as Qiyana, dressing them in Louis Vuitton-inspired attire. Alongside a custom trophy case for the Summoner's Cup and a capsule collection, this partnership marked a milestone, reshaping how fashion houses engage with gaming's global cultural influence.

Since 2019, Fortnite and Air Jordan have collaborated to merge sport, fashion, and gaming. In 2024, the partnership expanded with Kicks, Fortnite's digital sneaker feature. Players can now equip avatars with iconic styles like the Air Jordan 1 High OG Black Toe Reimagined, blending streetwear culture seamlessly into the virtual world.

Real Life vs Digital Identity

Anonymity

Amateur Leagues

Esports is much more than just a scene for the pros. While amateur leagues are far from having the same viewership numbers and importance as the pro events, they are their foundation, paving the way to professional play for aspiring newcomers. These amateur leagues can sometimes consist of hundreds of teams and thousands of players divided into multiple groups.

Inclusion

Commonly populated by people below the age of 35, esports has been a comparatively inclusive scene right from the start. Essentially a male-dominated space from the 1970s to the late 2010s, modern games have seen an increase in the percentage of their female fanbase. With fewer physical demands, gaming and esports are also naturally less exclusive towards humans with disabilities, and gaming companies are constantly developing new features to include as many players as possible. Nonetheless, there are more challenges to overcome in the future. The acquisition cost of gaming hardware and clash of different cultures are just two points that can still lead to division or exclusion.

Early Challenges: The “NFL of Esports”

The exponential growth of esports over the past 30 years did not come without its challenges. Especially before 2010, many events ended up as managerial failures, far below the original expectations, and not being paid on time, and sometimes at all was not that uncommon. Nowadays, these events are further complicated by overinflated assumptions. The Overwatch League, launched in 2016, was widely expected to be the global NFL of esports' but ended up collapsing at the end of 2023 due to an array of mismanagement and failure to maintain global attention.

New Industries Through Esports

Professionalising Esports

In the history of esports, it was not uncommon for the scene to grow faster than the structural foundation beneath it. However, in many short sprints of quick organisational development, existing organs of the esports scene would go on to professionalise themselves through, for example, hiring experts in traditional sports. Esports clubs joining arms with professional sports organisations— most famously the partnership between football club Paris Saint-Germain and Chinese esports organisation LGD—as well as traditional sports clubs picking up esports as part of their business have become regular occurrences in the years since 2018.