Notable Canadian esports organization Mirage Esport has partnered with Under Armour ahead of the Rainbow Six Siege NAL season, the organization announced today.
The partnership runs “long-term” and covers all of Mirage’s players in all esports. The deal also includes UA/Mirage branded items that will be for sale in Mirage’s online store.
“So we’ll have access to the catalog but basically they’re like ‘yeah just, just take the catalog, whatever you guys need whatever you guys like, we’ll print it for you,'” said Carl-Edwin Michel, owner of Mirage.
Michel said he came about the deal while helping a local college set up its esports department.
In addition, Mirage will be opening an esports facility in Montreal, according to a release.
“We’re also teaming up with them to create an esports center that will see the light of day in Montreal,” Mirage said. “This center, that will open in 2022, will allow our athletes to have cutting edge installations in order to perform at their best.”
Mirage is the first North American organization to partner with Under Armour. Several other orgs and esports players have partnerships with traditional sports apparel companies, including Cloud9 with Puma and retired League of Legends player Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao with Nike.
The deal will lock Mirage into an exclusive deal with Under Armour, with the caveat that it can use other non-sports apparel companies for other jerseys or apparel. “So we’ll have maybe specific collections, like a third jersey or something like special just for R6. That is not solely going to be Under Armour,” Michel said.
Under Armour has one other current esports contract with Team SMG from Singapore. Team SMG specializes in mobile esports and also has a VALORANT roster.
