The last few days has seen Overwatch League and Call of Duty League teams revealing their own personal kits to be sold on their own personal stores for their respective upcoming seasons. Now we know the reasoning behind this decision as Activision Blizzard has seemingly ended its partnership with merchandise manufacturer Fanatics, as reported by The Esports Observer.
The partnership originally began back in 2018 when Fanatics signed on with Activision Blizzard in its first esports deal, and was set to be the official fan gear manufacturer. That then expanded in 2019 to cover more products from the Activision Blizzard Gear store, as well as the Call of Duty League (which at the time had just been announced).
However, a recent tweet by the San Francisco Shock, stating: "Out with the old, in with the new..." before also announcing new partner Meta Threads for the franchise - who is set to help sell the team's merchandise - seems to suggest that Fanatics is no longer on the cards for the Overwatch League.
To check up on this, sources have stated to The Esports Observer that the Shock's new deal comes as Activision Blizzard and Fanatics have decided to end their partnership. The decision is also claimed to have been mutual, although no information has been provided by the games company on the matter as of yet.
