Inside Musterbrand: How One Company Crafts High-End Clothing for Gamers

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Finding a Stronger Connection

Star Wars is a huge win for Musterbrand when it comes to providing premium clothing based on gaming or film experiences, but that's not the mountaintop for the company. Instead, Musterbrand wants to get closer with the gaming industry, actually helping design the clothing that characters wear in-game. The Big Boss jacket is only the hopeful beginning for Musterbrand's vision and the company is working on two games in that capacity right now.

"When I started Musterbrand, this was always my vision and dream," says Bergel. "With the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the detail the studios are investing in, like the clothing of the characters, has increased significantly. We're now getting consulted. If a coat doesn't have a button, you can't close it in real life. Now they get back to us and say, 'Here's our character design. What should we do to make sure that you guys can manufacture it later on?'

"With Metal Gear, I went to Comic-Con wearing the jacket and people were coming and asking, 'Can I please touch it? That's the Big Boss jacket!' That's the way going forward."

Even then, Musterbrand wants to go deeper. Imagine clothing that comes with a code to unlock a similar item in game? The physical DLC idea that became popular in the toys-to-life category, could potentially be applied to Musterbrand's collections... if it's right for the game.

"When you do a Star Wars collection, you're at the peak of where you can go. As I said earlier, the vision is to create something worn by the protagonist," Bergel reiterates. "There's the option for the fan to buy this as a real, integrated part of the gaming experience. That's getting into transmedia: You buy a jacket and the jacket comes with a code that gives you a special item in the game. That's how we're thinking, because that grows the perceived value of an item. You've bought something exclusive, numbered, and limited. That's the tie-in we're looking to have, before Nike and those guys make it into this niche."

"Now they get back to us and say, 'Here's our character design. What should we do to make sure that you guys can manufacture it later on?'"

Not that Bergel and his team are worried about Nike and other manufacturers entering this niche. He believes the mature content of many AAA titles will prevent bigger companies from reaching into similar territory.

"I was initially worried, but the mature content direction of gaming won't change in the next five years and those guys won't want to deal with guns and that kind of thing," he says. "They'd go 'Oh, we'll have a compliance issue there.' If Nike were to put something into the next Grand Theft Auto knowing Rockstar could have some sort of scandal, they won't go in that direction."

Speaking of Rockstar, that's the company Musterbrand is still looking to work with. Musterbrand has a good relationship with Take-Two already, but it wants a "proper setup" in place before it jumps in. Timing is key and Rockstar needs to have a game on the way.

Otherwise, the clothing design firm is now working with every major game publisher on some sort of clothing line. These lines extend out in the end of 2016 and early 2017 at this point. EA for example, has been missing from Musterbrand's lineup, but they just released an N7 Training Jacket for Mass Effect and they're working on a total of five EA franchises.

"If the studios are really engaged, endorsing the clothes properly, and are inside of the process, then things sell great," says Bergel. "EA and the way we're dealing with Bioware is amazing. It's changing the mindset in all those studios. They realize that they have to come up with something beyond the digital for the fans."

That extension beyond the digital is exactly what Musterbrand wants. It believes fans have had to be happy with a t-shirt or a hoodie for far too long. If you love something and you want to show it off, Musterbrand wants you to look good while doing so. Their collections aren't cheap, but they are stylish and they do call back to your favorite characters and games far more than a simple logo pressed onto the front of a $5 t-shirt.

"Regardless of what brand we're working on, we have to extend the great experience a fan had with the franchise into a physical product," says Bergel. "They have to feel like they're a part of that universe. If you play a game and had a lot of fun, we don't want you to wear a low-quality t-shirt. That's our ultimate goal. It has to be an extension of that franchise into your real life."