Louis Vuitton producing LoL skins, case for Summoner’s Cup at Worlds
League of Legends developer Riot Games is partnering up with Louis Vuitton for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship.
Louis Vuitton, a luxury fashion house known around the world, will produce a custom trophy case for the Summoner’s Cup, which will be awarded to the winners of the tournament.
“For the Championship Finals in Paris on November 10th, 2019, Louis Vuitton is creating, in collaboration with Riot, an unprecedented, one-of-a-kind Trophy Travel Case to hold the Summoner’s Cup,” the company announced in a statement, per InvenGlobal. “The bespoke trunk, the first of its kind for an esports championship, will feature both traditional Louis Vuitton savoir-faire along with cutting-edge, high-tech elements inspired by the League of Legends universe.”
Pro players aren’t the only ones that will benefit from this classy partnership as Nicolas Ghesquiere, artistic director of women’s collections at LV, will design a new capsule collection and new skins for champions.
Both Riot and LV published statements on their websites confirming the partnership, which have since been deleted. Fans quickly mirrored the announcements from both Louis Vuitton and Riot.
It is unclear why the statements were taken down, but LV’s was dated for September 23. Odds are that the announcements erroneously went live early.
Regardless, the partnership is an interesting one and is the latest testament to Riot’s ability to attract non-endemic sponsors to competitive League of Legends. The publisher made waves last year by bringing on Mastercard as a global sponsor. LoL’s regional leagues have also been able to secure prominent sponsors of their own, such as Honda becoming the official auto manufacturer of North America’s LCS and Nike producing the kits for teams in China’s LPL.
Riot’s head of global esports partnerships Naz Aletaha expressed his excitement over working with the luxury brand.
“This is a historic partnership that speaks the impact Riot Games and League of Legends has had on the industry over the past nine esports season,” Aletaha said. “We welcome the LV brand to our sport and are eager to share the entire scope of the partnership in the months ahead.”