6 minute read
We are Nations
Patrick Mahoney We are Nations
Clothing the biggest organisations in the world
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AUTHOR Adam Fitch @byadamfitch
e Are Nations is quickly becoming one of the most prominent apparel and merchandising companies in esports. Led by its CEO Patrick Mahoney, the company is partnered with the likes of Riot Games’ LCS, G2 Esports, and OpTic Gaming. Now, We Are Nations is supporting Esports Insider’s leading esports business conferences and main events through 2019. We caught up with Patrick ahead of the ESI NYC conference. W
The Esports Journal: What exactly is your involvement in ESI events for this year? Patrick Mahoney: Past being a sponsor with the logo placements and sponsored benefits across ESI channels, I simply hope to participate more. If there’s ever an apparel, merchandising, or fashion panel where I would have the relevant experience then I’d love to be involved in that capacity, but we’re happy to sponsor ESI’s events. They’re a great way to get our name out. The great thing about esports is that you can have a conference in Manchester, New York, Asia, wherever - it doesn’t really matter. It just happens to be a global conference at a different location so, everything that we’re doing is relevant anywhere and everywhere. We don’t necessarily need to focus on a specific location or to say that we’re only working in a particular territory. These conferences are very much destination conferences where the global market will come together; I’m sure you’ll have a certain percentage of regional interest, but at the end of the day there’s a global appeal.
ESJ: How do you think esports conferences can be beneficial to businesses? PM: I think they’re critical; they’re a place to get a core group of people together in different contexts, in
different locations, with a set of mission statements and core values for business. I think it’s something of a two-way street; you have this sort of communal incubator where these ideas will continue to be incubated, and the business will just keep growing.
The fact that these conferences are thriving all over the world is a testament to how global this industry really is, and you’ve got this core group of people starting to drive it along with these really important local conditions.
I can only imagine from a production, IP, or operational standpoint that any game producer or an event promoter has their own set of unique challenges territory by territory. We Are Nations certainly has. I would say it’s harder to distribute jerseys online in Asia than it is in America, for example. We’re all faced with our own challenges, but we can deal with them as a group.
ESJ: From a business standpoint, have you found business conferences worthwhile? PM: Based on my limited experience, they’re so, so important. I really believe we’re all in this together. There’s a way that we can all coexist in this growing industry, growing sport, and we’re all early adopters. We need each other.
ESJ: Quite a few different companies occupy the section of esports apparel, what do We Are Nations offer to teams that competitors don’t (or can’t)? PM: Because of our backgrounds in music, entertainment and sports merchandising, we had a turnkey solution. We see esports merchandising as very similar to any other sports merchandising and are excited to help build on this. We are creating a very broad multisales channel network and in addition to teams, tournaments and leagues, we would love to collaborate, invest and/or work with any esports brands bringing unique ideas to the table. Right now we’re exploring every opportunity and taking every meeting.
ESJ: What is your criteria for choosing organisations that you end up partnering with to manage and produce apparel? PM: In addition to the usual metrics - performance, reach, results, and so on - we are drawn to brands with unique character and global appeal. We are also in the process of developing ways to reach amateur teams, as well as college and high school teams, that are seeking custom apparel merchandise.
In addition to our main US base, we have subsidiary companies in the UK, Belgium, and Australia to better service the international needs of our clients.
ESJ: Why did you decide to get involved with ESI’s events as a sponsor? PM: There are two main reasons. The first reason is that you guys have been great to us. You’ve been fair with your coverage, and you’ve supported us when we’ve had press releases, and we’ve really appreciated that. I feel as if we need to give back and support. The second is that I believe that these events appear to be a very aggressive, smart, forward-thinking strategy. It just makes sense for us to get involved wherever possible.
ESJ: One of the discussions at ESI New York will focus marketing in esports, and that somewhat lends itself to what you do at We Are Nations. What do you think about the overall landscape of the apparel business in esports as it stands? PM: I see a lot of me when I got started in music where it was a passion play for me. This is like the early nineties. There was a big alternative music bubble in the US, and a lot of people that I knew in bands needed merchandise. It was a passion play because I knew I could offer a service to these people that - it just sort of went from there.
I see these other start-up companies, and there’s this common thread. They’re like “I love esports, how can I be involved?” and I really respect and admire that. There are a few of us, and there’s nothing wrong with competition in business. It’s healthy, it sort of keeps people in check.
I think that the fact that people are trying to do it and figure it out is great. Each company in the space appears to have its own speciality too, and if that works out then, it’s great for the industry overall. We’re focusing more on having a global team right now, establishing our base through working with organisations and leagues worldwide.
We have the advantage of having years of both endemic and non-endemic experience, and I think that’s shown in how quickly we’ve grown.
ESJ: We have a roundtable at ESI New York featuring SirScoots, Saira Mueller, and Slasher about what needs to change in esports (‘Esports Chamber 101’). Have you encountered anything whilst running We Are Nations that you think definitely needs to change? PM: I think there are things that probably need to mature. It’ll happen with time, and this is a long play, so within that context, yeah, things need to change. I’ve had some conversations with people about kids suddenly making millions of dollars, right? Who’s going to guide them? How are they going to manage that amount of money? How can they avoid the things that have happened in other sports? We obviously don’t want that to happen.
Less specifically, I think the industry just needs to mature but it does have a bunch of younger people operating within it so it’ll just take time.
