So… one of the things I have never understood about Riot is their lack of attention towards merch selling. Sure, they have merch. You go on their website and they have a handful of t-shirts, maybe a onesie or two. The reality is there is nowhere near the amount of focus on merch for League of Legends as there are for many other popular video games. The amount of money Riot could make off focusing more on clothing with their brand is astronomical. Think about how much money is made off Fortnite and Overwatch clothes in stores like Spencers, Hot Topic, online, etc. A LOT.
Recently, Riot Games did a collab with Louis Vuitton, a high end designer brand, called LVxLOL. To be honest, part of me is confused and part of me is impressed. Let me explain.
The part of me is confused is as followed. Most people who play League of Legends are 26 years old (per Google). Sure, not as young as I thought, but still pretty young. The majority of League of Legends players are probably in school or early graduates and still working on building up their wealth and income. The pieces in LVxLOL are insanely expensive for a young professional.
https://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/products/lvxlol-sleeveless-peplum-top-nvprod2000051v
The shirt above, called LVXLOL SLEEVELESS PEPLUM TOP, is a whopping $1,140. Sure, you can argue it is good quality and designer, which adds up. Think about how much $1,140 can do for a young professional. That could be a month or two of rent. That could literally be a whole wardrobe of clothes from a cheaper store like H&M. It seems like an overpriced choice for League of Legends merch.
The other thing I’m confused about is that this brand doesn’t seem very “League of Legends-y.” I have looked at all the pieces and besides the one item containing a picture of Quiyana, it doesn’t seem very inspired by the game (recently they added more Quiyana shirts, so I might have to retract this statement however). Sure, the brand is sleek and cool, but I don’t see the connection to League. If anything, I would argue some of these pieces remind me of Kingdom Hearts or even perhaps Final Fantasy or another games besides League of Legends.
There is another side of me that is impressed by the collab. Why? The pieces are cool and this brings League into the attention of other high end brands. The collection launched at a great timing so that people could buy the items for their loved ones for the holidays. Despite the price tag, somehow the collection has been insanely successful (it sold out in an hour) even though I doubt most 20-something League of Legends players could afford the collection.
While it is a brilliant marketing ploy, I wish Riot had done a more affordable collab so all League of Legends players could have access to it. Hopefully, this is a start for Riot to do more collabs with other brands, not just Louis Vuitton.
