Esports Dress for Women Receives Backlash from Community
By Nicholas Barth ·
A newly announced esports dress item from Cranium Apparel was not well received during its release this past weekend.
Saturday, March 2nd saw company Cranium Apparel announce and release a new esports dress item for female gamers. However, the announcement of the esports dress from Cranium Apparel received a good amount of backlash following its official reveal, as many women responded to the announcement with a fair amount of criticism.
From the comparison of the esports dress from Cranium Apparel to a cheerleader's outfit to the questioning of whether or not any females were involved in the creation of the clothing item, a share of the responses from the gaming community was likely not what Cranium Apparel was hoping to see.
Were any females involved in the design/decision making of this?
— msShadowfax ? (@Shadowfax) March 4, 2019
Responding to the above question from community member Shadowfax, Cranium Apparel stated that no female individuals had been involved in the design and decision-making process of the esports dress and that the company would be turning to the community now for ideas.
The organization followed this statement with an explanation that stated the company had conducted preliminary research with female players and had received an overall positive response.
We Had conducted a preliminary research by a bunch of female gamers and and we got a pretty positive response!
— Cranium Apparel ® (@CraniumApparel) March 4, 2019
At least we are trying to do something different! and creating such tweets wouldn't stop us from improving! We don't give in to haters!
This led to another member of the community by the name of Hannah Rutherford responding to Cranium Apparel and stating that the company needed to gather a much larger sample size when it came to the designing their esports dress item.
not sure which female gamers you were asking lads, but you need a bigger sample size. Come and ask us, we won't bite. Please for the love of god don't use polyester regardless of 'quality', it's sweaty and horrid and unflattering unless you're a model.
— Hannah Rutherford (@lomadia) March 4, 2019
Other responses to the announcement consisted of suggestions of other pieces of clothing that members of the community believed would resonate more with female players, while others stated that they understood the motivation behind the item but believed the execution and wording of the announcement regarding the dress giving female players a new identity were extremely flawed. The company would go on to say that it would be removing the phrase in question from future product announcements.
We are aware of that fact and will be removing that text from the future announcements! We want to keep on improving and we will not bow down to haters! instead we will show them that we can emerge again and be better than everyone else out there! Thank You! ?
— Cranium Apparel ® (@CraniumApparel) March 4, 2019
Following the criticism the company received for the dress, it asked what kind of female clothing items players would like to see in their store and to share their ideas.
Due to a lot of criticism on our most recent addition to our store for female gamers, we want to ask all of you what would you like to see in the future for our women’s store! Please drop your ideas below!
— Cranium Apparel ® (@CraniumApparel) March 3, 2019
The dress may or may not be there!*#CraniumFam #Womeninesports
What are your thoughts on the esports dress from Cranium Apparel and the criticism that it has received? Let us know in the comments below.
(cover photo courtesy of Cranium Apparel)