Esports apparel brand Raven and London sneaker destination Footpatrol have launched exclusive merch collections for Call of Duty League teams LA Thieves, London Royal Ravens, OpTic Chicago and Atlanta FaZe.
These will be sold exclusively at a retail pop-up in the heart of Soho, London on July 10th 2021.
The Raven x Footpatrol pop-up has been created solely for UK fans of the Call of Duty franchise, offering a chance to experience a community-driven activation after more than 18 months of uncertain times. The collaboration is focused on apparel – a spokesperson told Esports News UK there’s no footwear ‘this time round’.
The pop-up will also feature global peripheral brands Astro Gaming and Scuf Gaming, along with meet and greet sessions with UK-based Call of Duty London Royal Ravens content creators Liam ‘Jukeyz’ Lunt and Angelika ‘Angelika’ Slon. The event will be open to all to attend for one day only.
The collections drew inspiration from each team’s history in esports and also their regionalised foundations, with the goal to make each garment in the eight-piece collection unique.
“We hope that with this collection, we can further cement the connection between the gaming community and the sneaker community. Launching the project locally in our neighbourhood of Soho, we can’t wait to see these two worlds collide, we look forward to seeing you all there.”
Sam Hodgkinson, Footpatrol
Creative director of Raven, Adam Cooper, said: “We wanted to make sure every item offered something different to what can already be purchased. It was a joy to collaborate with Footpatrol and get lost in the collections on detailed construction, all the way from the contrasting sherpa knit and polyester to the debossed coach jacket aglets.
“We’re incredibly proud to be leading the way for CDL merch in Europe and are very excited to see where the long-term partnership will take us.”
Sam Hodgkinson, marketing & PR manager of Footpatrol, added: “With our store being within the heart of Soho and having such a strong sense of community cemented within it, the last year has proven a real challenge so having this opportunity to immerse ourselves within the world of esports and work on this project with both Raven and CDL has been a great experience.
“We hope that with this collection, we can further cement the connection between the gaming community and the sneaker community. Launching the project locally in our neighbourhood of Soho, we can’t wait to see these two worlds collide, we look forward to seeing you all there.”
Raven explains how they made each collection:
“For LA Thieves, everything was about identity. As a parent company, with owners such as Drake and Scooter Braun, 100Thieves have re-written the script for esports merchandise, so for us, this was about adding our own chapter. After spending time exploring numerous design directions, it became evident that anything too graphic heavy wouldn’t work. We decided to strip everything back, blow up the text logo lockup, print seam to seam and allow the brand to take centre stage.
“Atlanta FaZe has such a rich history in esports and wider gaming culture, one that has been littered with streetwear icons and collaborations with brands such as Premier League team, Manchester City. The main inspiration came from their trademark hand sign, we used this as a silhouette to house their iconic camo texture. For us, using a box fit tee and oversized hoodie would be a clear fan favourite for FaZe’s demographic.
“OpTic Chicago was an opportunity to look beyond esports and dive into the rich landscape of Chicago street fashion and culture. Taking the iconic oversized bomber and coupling it with a boxy graphic heavy tee felt like a nice balance between past and present. Throughout the design we included subtle nods to OpTic’s past, after all, when you think competitive Call of Duty, it’s impossible not to nostalgize about their profound impact on the space.
“To round off the collection, London Royal Ravens was an opportunity to explore inspirations close to home. As a brand born in the UK, the foundations built for UK Call of Duty are a shared heritage with ourselves. For the rich red tee, we designed a unique, festival esc take on the typography. For anyone who has attended a UK LAN event, the connection here will be unmistakable.”
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
