Adidas announces its first esports sneaker collaboration with Team Vitality

Esports market is growing with big investments and partnerships and even sports brands are looking to cash in. Brands like Nike and Louis Vuitton have already partnered with esports organisations and now Adidas is jumping into the fray. They have announced their first esports sneaker collaboration with the French esports organisation, Team Vitality, which is known for games such as League of Legends, Rainbow Six: Siege and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. 

The sneaker is called the AM4 VIT.01 and is Adidas’ first offering in the world of esports. This is not the first publicly available esports sneaker, though. It is not an entirely custom shoe; it is just an AM4 with the team’s colours. And the colours look good. The black and yellow colours represent Team Vitality’s mascot, a bee. The yellow line on the toebox forms a V when both the shoes are held next to each other. 

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? PHYSICAL SALE IS OVER, ONLINE DROP STARTS NOW ? ⚠ LIMITED EDITION, NO RE-STOCK ⚠ Link in our story ??

A post shared by Team Vitality (@teamvitality) on Nov 9, 2019 at 6:17am PST

Fabien “Neo” Devide, Chairman of Team Vitality said regarding the collaboration in a release: “We are very happy to be able to continue our collaboration with Adidas, a brand with which we share the common values of innovation and competition. It confirms that esports is not just a simple passing fashion but a real social trend that lasts over time. This is a new and fundamental step in our development, one represented by the VIT.01 shoe which embodies perfectly Team Vitality on a day-to-day basis.” 

Sylvain Bouches, Brand Manager for Adidas added: “We are very proud to extend our partnership with Team Vitality. This step strengthens our position as an innovative and pioneering sports brand. Team Vitality is a quality partner, inspiring a whole generation stemming from the esports culture, a strong sector that we started to pre-empt more than two years ago. 

“Offering the best of our products and technology to our athletes to help them make a difference in their game, regardless of their discipline, is a priority. We are pleased to make our collaboration durable to continue challenging the codes of the sports industry.” 

In other news, Team Vitality received 14 million Euros in investment recently from Rewired.GG, which is owned by Tej Kohli, an IIT-K alumnus. Reportedly, the team also plans to expand in India and China.