The rise of gaming has been precipitous, professional gaming even more so, and brands have slowly begun to understand the pull that the trendiest of esports gaming communities can have when it comes to pushing sales—just ask ISlides, the sandal brand that saw a collaboration with a well-known gaming influencer double its sales on a collaboration in just a year.
ISlides’ relationship with Fortnite and NBA 2K gamer, Los Pollos, started in 2018 when the two put together a flash sale of Los Pollos-customized slides. Since ISlides is already focused on customization as a core component of its business, the pairing was easy and the two decided to do it again this year.
Over that year, gaming has only grown in its consumer appeal. K-Swiss released what it calls the world’s first esports performance sneaker. A 16-year-old from Pottsgrove, Penn. made national headlines for claiming a grand prize of $3 million, more than the purse for winning Wimbledon, at the Fortnite World Cup. Puma released a gaming chair and said it was time to start “seeing gamers as athletes.” Times have changed.
So, when ISlides and Los Pollos decided to re-up their collaboration with another flash sale early this month, the consumer response was even greater than it was a year ago.
“We saw really great success in the Flash Sale we ran with Los Pollos last summer,” Justin Kittredge, CEO and founder of ISlide, said in a statement. “That’s what really turned us onto the gaming space, where we now have official licenses for both NBA 2KL and the Overwatch League. We were happy to partner with Los again, and this year’s sale really took off.”
That sales “took off” was perhaps an understatement. In just five minutes, ISlides—a brand just a few years removed from its Shark Tank appearance—had sold 150 pairs from the Los Pollos collaboration. At the end of just the first day, sales of the slides had officially doubled from the year before. At its close eleven days later, the Los Pollos x ISlide collaboration had sold more than 750 pairs.
Although ISlides had previously been worn by influencers like DJ Khaled, Lebron James and Justin Bieber, its most valuable influencer relationship may be with the communities that streamers like Los Pollos command.
“Lowkey speechless,” Los Pollos tweeted on the first day of the flash sale. “You guys just more than doubled the sales of the slides from last year in LITERALLY LESS THAN 3 HOURS…I legit love you guys… thank you… thank you… THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!”