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In-Depth

Gen Z: Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag

Founder, 100 Thieves

Retired professional “Call of Duty” player Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag founded the esports organization 100 Thieves in 2017. Now part of Riot Games’ League Championship Series and financially backed by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, 100 Thieves is known for a popular line of high-end apparel and for producing content that celebrates both gaming and pop culture.

— As told to Ben Fischer

 

I try to understand what our audience enjoys, what they need and what they want as much as I can. My YouTube audience is probably 98 percent male, and anywhere from the age of 15 to 25 is my sweet spot. Knowing that, all my interests that I’ve been excited about have always transferred over to my audience, and that’s how I’ve always created my content.

courtesy of 100 Thieves

I played a lot of games growing up. That was the first passion that I had, but there were so many different things that defined who I was, whether it was me watching traditional sports, or unboxing sneakers, or hip-hop music, or anime. And so that’s where the entire 100 Thieves brand originated from. Esports is a very concentrated community that is really, really passionate about competitive gaming, but there are so many different things that this audience loves. For me, 100 Thieves was just that outlet. So let’s create streetwear. Let’s create content that people really want to consume. Let’s create the best teams, let’s bring on more entertainers that use gaming as a platform to grow their audiences, you know, so it’s really like a melting pot of Generation Z and all their interests in one brand.

In our first year, with 100 Thieves and our League of Legends team in LCS, we were making roster changes or we weren’t and people wanted to know why. We didn’t talk about it publicly. We just figured, this is like being a GM of a traditional sports team. They don’t have to have all the answers. We don’t have to go into great detail by saying we’re doing these things or why we’re making these changes. That really, really upset our core audience, and we had backlash for that. I would say that’s the one thing that we learned in this last year is the importance of constant dialogue with the community that supports your brand. You always have to be talking to them. You always have to be speaking directly to your consumer at all times.

Social media is really the gateway for brands, and growing them and unlocking an audience. If you’re not constantly monitoring and keeping tabs on the community sentiment or the brand sentiment that they send your way, or that people are talking about within your own community, you’re already dropping the ball. Expertise and familiarity with social media platforms allows you to discern between trolling and real feedback.

Those things are actually pretty easily dissected in my mind. I can tell right away when somebody is really just trying to get a rise out of us, or have a moment where the attention is on them. So it’s just going through all that feedback and going through all these messages and really knowing who actually cares and who’s just trying to have their five minutes of fame in the comments. So it’s tough but it’s not as difficult as you think.

I really wanted to create something that transcended more than just gaming. I wanted to create an identity where other individuals would be excited to represent the brand. Even though it is a part of gaming, it has a different aesthetic, tone and feel, whereas a lot of these teams really have operated like traditional sports businesses in the past — they’ve just created a logo, slapped it on the T-shirt and sold that.

We really wanted to create clothing that, when you look at your closet in the morning whether you’re going to school or going to work or you’re going out at night, 100 Thieves is top of mind, just because of the design and the quality of the clothing that we created. 

In the last year, we’ve most certainly learned that there’s a bigger interest in bigger brands. You look at YouTube and Twitch, you have all these great personalities who are creating content around the games, but it’s just them. It’s so singular and close-minded. For me, I wanted to create something that was more than just me.

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