How an accident led Mouseskins to become a UK esports success story in the making

During a long recovery time following an accident, Steven McKerrow looked at his battered gaming mouse and asked himself: What will the future mice of pro gamers look like? Why are some esports teams all using similar mice? And why haven’t they fine-tuned them individually to suit each gamer?

Mouseskins is the result. Steven set up the UK-based custom gaming mice provider a few years ago and launched it to the public in November 2021. He’s a man on a mission to make mice more individual for esports players, gamers and teams, and Dom Sacco sat down with him to ask about the future of mice in esports, how he aims to build revolutionary hardware – and how Mouseskins is changing how we think about accessories in terms of self-expression and fine-tuned performance. 

“This is my personal mouse now – I can’t put it down!” 

Steven is talking to me excitedly on our Zoom call as he holds his mouse up to the camera. It’s colourful to say the least – some might say garish – but that’s the beauty of personalisation. I’m a bit of a boomer who goes for dark colours with my clothing and gaming hardware, while Steven has gone for the extreme here.

The mouse has been designed by Brock Hofer, an artist who created the Hyper Beast skins in CSGO – wild, psychedelic monsters in bright colours. But it’s been created by Mouseskins, and the idea is to give confidence to players, to give them an edge.

“We make some really cool mice,” Steven says. “We also focus on the performance enhancement of a mouse, externally away from its sensors and clickers and all of that. So, its micro grip and detail, you get your air flow so you sweat less. We have a range of different textures to suit different styles, and then don’t forget the design.

“Changing the material or getting the click right for your ears really makes a difference on a performance level for two reasons – the response rate, technology and spec, then you’ve also got the confidence side. 

“It’s like when a golfer goes out wearing Gucci, he might feel powerful and more stronger, but go out wearing Primark and there’s a psychological aspect there!

Mouseskins doesn’t make its own mice, rather it buys existing products on the market then customises them to their customers’ content. But it does hope to allow gamers to send in their own products for exclusive customisation in the future.

“We can customise almost any mouse or bit of tech with our bespoke order process,” Steven says. “We buy it brand new, it comes fully professionally fitted, permanent for life, and we keep to the warranties and all the regulations. So if a sensor does go, you send it back to us and we’ll organise it with Razer, for example.

“The long-term goal is to allow customers to send their mice in to us for us to customise. As we grow in the next few years or two, we’ve got other plans. We’ve spoken to CeX in the past and the companies renew products, there’s a big push for that in the UK ecosphere of tech. So we could take an old Deathadder and maybe touch up the sensors. We’re looking at ways we can collaborate in the UK with companies that fix sensors in mice and tech. But that’s more of the long-term ambition.”

Buyers can get new mice customised via mouseskins.gg, and look at existing designs Mouseskins has made, having partnered with Alpine Esports, Yalla Esports, F1 driver Fernando Alonso (with a custom Razer Deathadder, one of 18 mice made for the 24 hour Le Mans race).

The website customiser features the Razer Deathadder, Logitech Superlight and Zowie Endgame, and gamers will eventually be able to customise their name on the mouse, live on the website, and individually change each section on the mouse, depending on what’s available.

Mouseskins is also working with influencers and wants to reach more, as well as supporting esports teams, players, celebrities and the wider gaming community. The company is in talks with the likes of Slushpuppy, Gobananas and Fugglet.

“The early vision was to make a mouse for them, they sell it and make some revenue as well, because I want to support the creators,” Steven says. “Obviously we need to make a living, but it’s not about the profit for us, I see a lot of influencers make their own communities and reinvest money, run giveaways and give positivity back and a lot are very mindful. So we pick our influencers and who we want to work with well. We’ve talked with them for a long time.

“Any influencer should be able to sign up long-term, make 50% revenue out of it, do giveaways, put money back into what they do, whatever they want to do. It becomes their own brand of hardware, they can use the mice for giveaways, sell them, use Mouseskins to leverage their brand or company however they want. And it can be ordered on demand.”

Mouseskins is Leicester-based, with various remote workers around the UK. It has just taken on a marketing director and a development team as it looks to grow and make more mass-produced, affordable offerings. But before we get into that, let’s rewind a little. How did Mouseskins first come about?

Where did the idea for Mouseskins’ premium custom mice come from?

Before launching Mouseskins, Steven set up GGrip, his registered name, innovation and design and consulting arm. He tells the story behind the whole launch.

“As a good cyclist, I enjoyed endurance cycling massively,” Steven explains. “I loved the tech in my bike, the materials it’s made of and different types of titanium and carbon all have their own benefits, like feel, vibration, reducing strain, or feeling more of that. 

“I was in an accident in 2016, I was cycling to work and so unfortunate and fortunate events have put me in this situation. I got to take a nice year or two out to recover, no work, no cycling, no sports. And now I’m a lot more mobile and I can travel, but in that process I got a bit stir crazy, you know, cabin fever, we’ve all faced our demons. 

“I went to see some family and talked to my dad at one point. He said: ‘Do you know what, you’ve spent all this time helping businesses make hundreds and thousands, if not millions of sales, why don’t you just go do it now for yourself? Why wait five more years for more experience? Why not give it a shot, what do you have to lose?’

“Within a few months he refocused my brain. Family are always good to go to in a dark time. So I got into gaming again. I worked with my brother on Warhammer Mechanicus. I’m good at getting things done. I noticed during testing they didn’t have voices for some of the enemies, so I helped them and put them in touch with actors. I loved how the gaming industry worked, from working with Warhammer to Kalypso.

“During my recovery time, I looked at my mouse and realised my Razer Deathadder had been battered the last two years while gaming. The outside coating started wearing and there was dirt on it, but it still worked, the sensor was fine, but it lost its grip, so I was focused, I was on a mission to fix it. As a lunatic, I was looking at 3D printed carbon fibre, but then I went backwards. So I went for the extreme ideal goal, if I had £10m to set this up with additive manufacturing, what is the future for the mice of pro gamers like TACO and S1mple? 

“Razer sponsors esports teams, so why are they all using the same mouse? Why haven’t they fine-tuned it? Why aren’t there modular sides? That’s the way hardware is trying to go, it’s a big process.”

Casing, pricing and gold-plated mice

Steven started looking at 3D printing and the additive side, making premium products. 

“If you’re looking to change the rubber on the side of your mouse, or if your style suits a fatter grip, it’s really good,” Steven says. “It’s like using a tennis racket, you’re looking for that tack. It’s 0.5mm thick or 0.4mm, but you’re adding that on top of your click, which changes your press and from your muscle memory, at a professional level. So that was something we had to tackle.

“I think there’s a lot of problems with mice when you’re customising them on-demand. It’s not like a guitar where it’s the main wooden board, you take off the electrics, you can paint it and seal it, but every layer of detail adds micromillimeters on, which changes the tolerance of your clicks and the feel of the mouse.

“And people don’t just want something that is stuck on top of their mouse, they want it to be long-term. So we had to look at the quality and endurance. The science behind protective layers is crazy, UV protected, it’s got silverweave, it’s designed to be out in the sun and rain for 25 years. 

“I thought: what was my worst day gaming? It has to endure that – grease from your hands, sweat, toxins, food etc. And that’s what eats away at the plastics. We put a grip on the surface, so brush metal or carbon at the moment, and we’re exploring some other methods and big collaborations.”

In terms of the price, it’s in the luxury ballpark for now – around £450 – as Mouseskins is targeting some higher-end clientele including celebrities and professional sportspeople like the aforementioned Fernando Alonso.

But it wants to make his products more accessible in the future and make Mouseskins a one-stop shop for gamers buying custom mice.

“Since we launched the website in November 2021, our niche has been working with pro gamers, [celebs and footballers], businesses that want to customise lighting or their own tech,” Steveb says. “And we have an ASUS Republic of Gamers design competition that just ended, I saw [content creator] 3kliksphilip enter that and some artists from London, from graffiti artists to fine painters.

“My end goal is to bring top-end tech down to the consumer, for those young people who are 18 and want to play and maybe go pro, that’s where we start at the grassroots level. So we need your average joe to be able to get an add-on or be bought through a license with SteelSeries or Asus or Glorious, who moved away from their cheese-grater mouse. It’s that evolution.

“At the moment we do quantities of around 25 to 100 depending on the collab or the collection and what people are looking for.

“We have our consumer luxury product at the moment, and I’d say in the next six months as more brands come on board, there will be some changes at Mouseskins with more mass-produced and one-of-a-kind versions.”

What about at the upper higher-end? What if someone wanted a gold-plated mouse, for example?

“Someone asked if we could make a gold-plated Superlight mouse,” Steven says. “I had a prototype done and it came out 5g more heavier than the normal mouse. To get it the same weight, that’s super bespoke and it might cost £10,000 up front to sample the first one or two in 24k gold, there’s quite a bit of work involved with that. So we don’t have gold-plating services here, but we have gold-style plastic and chrome effect casings.”

EMG, Dubai and the future of Mouseskins

Mouseskins is working with EMG, the organiser of a two-day gaming festival in Dubai going on right now. This features a $250,000 CSGO tournament, in partnership with StarLadder and Gamers Hub, and the tournament is part of the $1m Global Esports Tour. 

The winners are promised ‘something special’ from Mouseskins on top of the prize money.

Steven says: “We have a niche collection for the tournament and were brought in to design some clothing and merch. There’s a big drive in Dubai and the UAE to bring sports, culture and art into their environments as we become a global world. They want to do something special and they knew I worked with Brock Hofer and Yalla Esports in the past – I designed their jersey. 

“They approached me about mice initially and then asked for my opinion on the jerseys. So from that relationship they asked if we could do something creative and bring some culture in. I managed to get Brock Hofer involved and we’ve been working on some incredible art, with purples, blues and pinks and a Hyper Beast creation going on T-shirts and hoodies, so bringing that CSGO skin culture in.

“The event has anime, cosplay, performers from Naruto and My Hero Academia, because esports isn’t booming out there as much as it is in Europe. There’s a drive to build it as a sport there and to build the culture and ecosystem. So they’re combining events, bringing gamers and geeks in with anime and concerts, now there’s a serious CSGO tournament there to give that immersive experience. I think they’ve got something special they’re working on.

“There’s talks of supporting future female tournaments and diversity tournaments out there, local tournaments and grassroots and focusing on the educational side and so on.”

On criticisms of Saudi and the UAE’s involvement in esports, the notion of ‘esportswashing’ and using tournament announcements and esports acquisitions to cover up their human rights record, Steven responds: “I don’t like human rights violations for one. I don’t think anyone does, and it pins back to us all becoming a bit more global. If something happens in Saudi Arabia, China, Ukraine, the more these things get brought into the light, the more we can deal with it. 

“We can’t keep quiet about the way people are treated in general, we’re all human and speak, talk and look similar and are here to have a good life, and hopefully die happy, because it’s inevitable and in that process, I think you have to make friends with who you can, be kind and stand up for things you care for, but you’ve got to know your facts. 

“My interest is if change is happening, they’re pushing for it and the right people are pushing for it, let’s keep focusing on this and doing what is right. Maybe it wasn’t always brought to people’s attention until it was in the news. It allows us to question the news or make sure something is kosher. We want to know if money goes towards something, that it supports the right people and doesn’t just go into someone’s back pocket, the community likes that interaction. Hopefully we’ll see more of that from deals. 10 years ago, we might not have had as much insight.”

Looking towards the future of Mouseskins, Steven is optimistic. 

He says: “Come and buy some of our products, give us a shout, start a collaboration with us. We’ve got some insane stuff happening this year. If it’s exciting or a cool project, we can squeeze it in. In 2023 we have a lot of stuff happening, our automation, and I look forward to people using our products and interacting with more people and teams, creating cool products in collaboration that people can enjoy.

“It’s not an easy process to do what we do and we’re exploring some semi-automated processes that will speed this process up, as it’s labour intensive at the moment. 

“And we also have a bit of a polish-up, a rebrand, on the way. We have hardware partners like Asus coming on board and top manufacturers in gaming. If they exist, we’re in talks with them at the moment to do creative projects with them, to work with their influencers, to interact with pro gamers to really create something special, rather than just trying to push a product.

“We’re in phase two of Mouseskins now, we’re working towards an update on the website which will give more customisations, more brand awareness with our partners and more cost-effective process. We’re also about to get a UK site for manufacturing. And if we expand to the US or Dubai, we can set up a facility elsewhere, so it’s done on-site with local shipping and local work. 

“With a combination of some incredible licenses coming up, ASUS coming on board, support from hardware partners, we’re able to drive down our prices and we’ve got some exciting things lined up.”

Follow Mouseskins’ socials and see their website here

Dom Sacco

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.