For fans, sports athletes are heroes. Not infrequently, the fans want to be like the person he admires, for example by using products that the athlete wears. For this reason, companies are usually willing to spend millions to be able to sponsor an athlete or a sports team. Nike is a brand that is very aggressive in sponsoring sports teams.
Nike first entered the realm of esports in China in October 2018. At that time, they collaborated with LeBron James to promote the documentary Shut Up & Dribble. In the campaign, they involved Jian “Uzi” Zihao, a player of the Royal Never Give-Up (RNG) team who competed in League of Legends Pro League (LPL). In February 2019, Nike signed an agreement to become a sponsor of LPL, the League of Legends competition for the Chinese region. The sponsorship agreement, which is valid for four years, is worth US $ 29 million. This is the first time Nike has sponsored an esports league.
With the sponsorship contract, all players, coaches, referees and LPL team managers must wear Nike clothes and shoes on match day. Since this contract is exclusive, no other sportswear brand may be a sponsor of the LPL or all teams that play in the league. In April, Nike showed off the shirt they made together with LPL, which they named “Gamer. While in early September, the sportswear company showed uniforms from the LPL team, which featured the Nike and LPL logos, but did not show sponsors from each team. Not stopping there, Nike also launched various types of clothing with LPL, such as T-shirts, shoes, and hoodie jackets.
Nike has spent quite a bit of money as an esports sponsor in China. According to Lanxiong Sports, the value of sponsorship between Nike and LPL reaches 50 million yuan per year. Sponsorship is in the form of money and products. Nike is not the only sportswear brand that is willing to spend large amounts of money in the Chinese esports industry. It is Li-Ning, a popular Chinese sportswear brand in its home country.
According to The Esports Observer report, Li-Ning is also interested in entering Chinese esports. However, they have no plans to follow in the footsteps of Nike and become sponsors of the esports league. Even if they want to do that, they won’t be able to because the agreement between Nike and LPL is exclusive. Li-Ning was a sponsor of the League of Legends Edward Gaming (EDG) team in October 2018. However, when Nike signed an exclusive agreement with LPL, Li-Ning inevitably had to terminate the contract with the esports team. However, that does not mean Li-Ning is no longer interested in esports. A few months after the termination of the contract with EDG, they have become sponsors of various esports teams such as Newbee, QC Happy, Hero, YTG, the Dota 2 RNG team, and also the Griffin Team from South Korea.
Indirectly, Li-Ning also has an LPL team named LNG Esports. In January, Viva China Sports acquired the Snake Esports team. To Chongqing Evening News, CEO of Viva China Sports, Li Qilin said that they spent “hundreds of millions of yuan” to buy the esports team. The Snake Esports team then changed their name to LNG Esports in May. Viva China Sports is a sports division under Viva China Holdings, which is partly owned by Li Ning. In addition, Qilin is a nephew of Li Ning and serves as a board member in the Li-Ning Group. The money Li-Ning spent on developing the Chinese esports industry is also not small. According to LoL China White Paper from Tencent / Riot Games, Li-Ning spent 30 million yuan to build the LNG Esports headquarters.
Because of Nike’s exclusive contract with LPL, Li-Ning cannot be a sponsor of the LPL team in China. However, they can still make direct agreements with the players. As of last July, Li-Ning has obtained an endorsement agreement with 10 players from Edward Gaming (EDG). This strategy is not unusual and is commonly applied in traditional sports, such as basketball. For example, even though Nike is the exclusive clothing sponsor for the NBA, Adidas can still make agreements with NBA players, James Harden.
Although Nike and Li-Ning are both sportswear brands that are sponsors in the realm of esports, both have different strategies. If Nike targets gamers with the “Gamers” line, Li-Ning focuses on professional esports athletes with the Chinese Professional Players which Li-Ning released shortly after Nike introduced the Gamer line. In Indonesia, the esports team that collaborates with clothing brands is EVOS Esports. In July, they announced a collaboration with Thanksinsomnia with the aim that their name is not only known as an esports team, but also a lifestyle brand. They also then opened a flagship store in August.
