Fortnite star Ninja signs multi-year apparel deal with Adidas

Fresh off of a well-publicized split from Twitch, streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins today announced a partnership with Adidas, which the apparel company now tells The Verge is a multi-year deal. There aren’t any shoes or apparel for sale right now, but on his Mixer stream, Blevins said, “I can’t say specifically what is in the works with Adidas, but use your imagination.” Adidas says that the partnership might lead to products “in either the physical or virtual world.”

Apparel companies signing deals with gaming stars is a relatively new phenomenon. Nike signed a deal earlier this year to make jerseys for the League of Legends Pro League in China, which are expected to debut at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship in Paris in October. Champion and K-Swiss have also signed apparel deals with individual teams and players.

The partnership with Adidas is far from Ninja’s first with a brand. He’s long partnered with Samsung and has appeared in the company’s #TeamGalaxy ad campaign, promoted the Galaxy S10 exclusive K-Pop-themed Fortnite skin and emote, and opened a Samsung-made Fortnite “supply drop” with a Galaxy Note 9 inside. Ninja also makes money from a number of other deals, including a long-running Red Bull sponsorship, YouTube ads, and he gets paid to play certain games, including a reported $1 million for playing EA’s Apex Legends at its launch earlier this year. He also just released a book.

On his Mixer stream, Ninja said more details on the collaboration will be out soon.

Update August 27th, 7:45PM ET: Added information from Adidas about the length of the deal and that the partnership may lead to physical or virtual products.