One of the biggest names in sportswear and fashion, adidas, has joined forces with the esports organisation North.

North is the outfit created via a collaboration between Nordisk Film and F.C. Copenhagen.

The partnership will run for at least the rest of 2018 with ‘a mutual ambition of extension’.

This arrangement between North and adidas will see North’s players and teams continue to wear adidas branded clothing when they play, travel, stream and so on and so forth.

Due to North’s close links with F.C. Copenhagen, this arrangement is perhaps far from surprising. Indeed the organisation, which currently competes only in CS:GO but with plans for far more, already sports the adidas logo on their kits but this has now become a formalised arrangement. Moreover this’ll mean far more activity between North and adidas than just branding alone. We can look to the ongoing content in the form of a documentary series that the team has produced with another partner, GG Bet, as evidence for this.

German brand adidas is of course well versed in sporting sponsorships; it has been a sponsor of the Danish football club FC Copenhagen, as well as the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United, Paul Pogba and more.

Sandra Essesjö, Communications Manager, adidas had this to say on the North deal: “Esport in general has a fantastic community which supports and gathers people across borders. At the same time, the youth culture has a strong voice in Copenhagen. We believe, as a sports company, that you are able to succeed with passion, practice, motivation and support.

“We want to show the new generation, that we see and support what they care about, because we know how important communities are for young people. Furthermore North is one of the most professional esport brands in the world.”

The esports org’s CEO, Christian Sørensen was amongst the speakers back at our ESI Super Forum on March 22nd. He was on a panel discussing sports clubs in esports, and you can catch him answering a few questions on camera below:

On the topic of the adidas partnership, he added: “The cooperation with adidas is an important step in the constant development, we experience with the North brand. adidas is the biggest sports and fashion brand in the world, and for that reason, it is a perfect match.

“It makes me extremely proud that a brand like adidas, a first mover in many areas, has chosen to work with us.”

Esports Insider says: And so it begins. With sportswear giant adidas now properly invested in the esports space, we’ve little doubt that it’s only a matter of time before the likes of Under Armour and Nike follow suit. It’s fantastic news for North too, a suitably cool org for adidas to partner up with. It’s also further proof that when sports clubs play it smart when it comes to esports it can most definitely work.