Rocksmith cofounder and former Wu-Tang Clan companion Erik Marino has joined championship esports group TSM FTX as vp of attire.
Marino joins the U.S.-based TSM from FaZe Clan, the place he served as govt artistic director and constructed that esports group’s merchandise attire division. In his new position, he’ll oversee the event for all TSM FTX attire, with the primary merchandise underneath his course launching in July. He additionally plans to construct the corporate’s in-house model and forge collaborations to attach with its fan base of about 100 million individuals, in line with Marino.
“I’m interested in what I can do for TSM,” Marino mentioned to WWD. “They have always been pioneers in the business of gaming and esports.”
TSM FTX, which stands for Team Solomid and is sponsored by cryptocurrency buying and selling platform FTX, is a Los Angeles-based esports group with groups that compete in League of Legends, Apex Legends, Valorant, Fortnite, Super Smash Bros. and PUBG Mobile, amongst others. The group’s League of Legends crew received seven of the 16 splits of North America’s League of Legends Championship Series.
“They have many streams of revenue and continue to get more valuable,” Marino added. “I don’t see them being taken off of the Forbes [Most Valuable Esports Company] list any time soon. For me, it was an easy decision, but also I like the idea of sculpting something. They haven’t really focused on apparel in the past. I love their logo, their colors, it’s a great starting point.”
Marino has been part of the gaming and esports scene for a while by means of FaZe Clan and believes that the common gaming fan is “not abstractly different from the fan base of Rocksmith,” noting how each have an affinity for streetwear, hip-hop music and hype.
“I’ve been in this space since the beginning of 2019 and it grows fast year after year,” he mentioned. “To me, after doing 18 to 20 years in traditional streetwear, I feel the energy now is in this esports space and even when it comes to product, it’s exciting. It’s all one market now from hip-hop to hype. It’s all melded together and the esports companies fall in that.”
