G2 Esports, one of the world’s leading entertainment and esports brands, has signed New Era, one of the biggest brands in headwear, as its exclusive headwear partner.

G2 has also released its first cap and beanie collection, available for fans to buy, to mark the partnership.

The collection has been designed in collaboration between G2 Esports and New Era and features a mix between essentials and lifestyle items. The collection blends the G2 personality and the iconic G2 samurai logo with traditional New Era design and quality. Fans can purchase the collection from G2 Ecomm, New Era Online, Brick&Mortar retail, New Era’s 3rd party retailers, G2s signed resellers/retailers.

The deal will see New Era and G2 Esports come together to create a series of headwear collections in both core and lifestyle ranges, with various designs and styles of production.

“New Era is number one in headwear. G2 is number one in gaming. If that’s not a match made in heaven, I don’t know what is. Let’s have some fun,” said Carlos ‘ocolete’ Roriguez, CEO of G2 Esports.

The partnership marks New Era’s most recent foray into the world of esports and further signals the global potential of the esports industry, which has grown exponentially year on year. New Era has selected G2 as its latest esports partner due to the reputation for innovation and creativity the brand has developed since its inception and the partnership is the largest for the American headwear brand across Europe.

G2’s latest partnership with New Era indicates how the esports team is making its mark in premier lifestyle, entertainment, and apparel. As one of the most successful esports teams, G2 Esports has recently signed global deals with Adidas and Ralph Lauren, as the brand cements its position across entertainment and lifestyle.

G2 Esports was founded in 2015 by the legendary League of Legends player Carlos Rodriguez and veteran esports entrepreneur and investor, Jens Hilgers. In the last six years, G2 Esports has built a global community of 31 million supporters and most recently in Q3 2021, became the most-watched esports brand in the world.

New Era becomes the newest household name brand to invest in esports and joins G2’s ever-expanding roster of commercial partners. New Era joins Ralph Lauren, Adidas, Betway, BMW, Mastercard, Twitch, Pringles, and Red Bull in G2’s stable of household name-brand partners. 

An increasing number of global consumer brands are recognizing the opportunities that esports offer them to tap into a global, engaged millennial audience. 80% of G2’s global fanbase sit in the prized 18-34 demographic, and G2 boasted 5.8bn impressions across all of its social media channels in 2020.

In recent years, G2 secured a 10% engagement rate across social media, which compares favorably with some of the biggest sports brands in the world (Liverpool FC 1.15%, Manchester City FC 1.23%, and The Boston Red Sox 1.78%).

To mark the formal recognition of esports in South Korea, the Korea esports Association (KeSPA) was formed in 2000, with its key purpose being to manage and oversee e-sports in the country. It was formed under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Currently, it is said to manage approximately 25 of the country’s major e-sports games, amongst them being LoL, CS: GO, Starcraft II, and DOTA 2.

Although, the origins of esports in the world can be traced to as far back as the 1960s, according to reports. In South Korea, there was initial reluctance to the concept of e-sports, as the older generations had very little regard for it. They were of the belief that it was detrimental to the development of children and that it did not promote any form of success, especially academic success.

Despite this, Korea has been forging ahead with its efforts to populate esports and cement its place in society. This is why it has managed to produce some of the most notable global e-sports stars and legends.

Amongst those acclaimed stars and legends are the likes of Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok, Lee “Duke” Ho-Seong, Cho “Maru” Sung-Choo, and Bae “Bang” Jun-Sik, just to name a few. Faker is said to have earned an estimated $1.26 million in prize money as at September 2021, making him the top South Korean earner of prize money from e-sport tournaments.

Understanding that no industry operates in isolation, especially one as popular as gaming, it goes without saying that the forex impact in financial markets cannot be denied. For example, the need to exchange foreign currencies for the awarding of prize money is one way in which economies of the world continue to work hand-in-hand and establish international relations. 

Latest developments

Despite the initial hesitance from some to fully embrace e-sports in Korea, that appears to be changing over time. One particular teenage South Korean gamer, Yoon Ki-Chan, has been making headlines for boosting investor confidence in his abilities and the growth of e-sports in the country.

The teenage sensation has aspirations of becoming a pro LoL player, which is why he claims to get approximately three hours of sleep each day as he dedicates as much time as he possibly can to playing online games to hone his skills. In light of this, corporate investors and private educational institutions are said to be jumping on the bandwagon and rallying behind emerging talent. 

This is proof of the strides that the country is making in celebrating and investing in e-sports talents, with the hopes that they will go on to make a name for themselves in the industry and be named amongst the greats. Moreover, another notable feat is that the country recently announced that it would be doing away with a law that prohibited those below that age of 16 from playing online games on their computers between midnight and 06:00.

However, writings on the matter suggest that some opted to play them on their mobile phones instead. The law has reportedly been around for 10 years, and the move to ease the restriction was announced in August 2021.