Sports Branding Studio
August 8, 2025
Victus | Masterclass in Branding
I’ve been a big fan of Victus baseball bats for a while now. I picked up my first one pre pandemic and it was a beast. A Mookie Betts X50 handle 33/30. It was hot to say the least.…
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I watch a bit of baseball
Mostly Blue Jays games with my Dad. Watching is fine, but I’d rather be playing, obviously. With the Jays on a hot streak right now, I’ve been watching a little more frequently, so you see more teams, more highlights, and I started noticing a few players rocking Victus gloves. I’m also a bit of a gear nerd, if that wasn’t already pretty clear, so pulled up the Victus website. Nothing, no mention of gloves whatsoever. Neither Google nor Chat GPT were able to help find even a trace of these beauties.
A couple of weeks passed of dreaming about these gloves pass by, and then finally, they drop a teaser on instagram, with just a glimpse of what’s to come. What followed, was nothing short of a masterclass on branding, and product launch.
Let's Break it Down
The Hype - Lead with social proof.
They created some initial attention and curiosity by floating a few models around the MLB. Maybe not enough to for the average fan to notice, but enough for the type of people who go a bit nuts over their gear, to do so.The Teaser - This is really happening.
They drop an announcement showing a sneak peak on Monday. Just the edges of a few gloves, sounding a launch date. Today BTW (Friday). They sprinkle on a hint of scarcity and pinch of urgency, saying that they’ll only drop one model, and only 25 gloves available for purchase, and then the countdown begins.The Build Up - Positioning?
On the Tuesday they teased an unboxing video that cuts off just as the glove was bout to be removed form the box… this was followed up by shots of the box surrounded by fine leather goods and mysterious Kanji. This model is called the Akatsuki 暁, which translates to "Dawn" or "Daybreak" in English. Fitting?
It was the museum shots and old-timey Pantone swatches that really sold me on the exclusivity of it all.
The Countdown - Show us the goods
On Wedensday they showed us that full unboxing video. The first time we see the Akatsuki, up close and personal. As anticipated, it looks great, everything you'd expect from the company that made my hot pink Fernando Tatis bat.
We also get to see it emerge from a high quality glove bag, and that it comes with sexy miniature Victus bat to break it in. Oh and there also a fancy backstage pass type of card that gets you a bunch of other exclusive swag and offers galore.
Thursday was more of the same. I often send stuff like this to other guys on my team, and we were speculating on what the price tag might look like, and how fast they'd sell out.
The Drop - 10:59 am est
I was ready to go for when the countdown ended at 11 in the morning, just if anything to find out what this would cost, and it was surprisingly reasonable coming in at $400 USD. I own a Marucci glove that ran about the same, and Victus is actually owned buy Marucci, so it all makes sense. But man the hype they were able to generate around this drop was something else. The placement, the visuals, the positioning, the messaging... chef's kiss to their team.
They sold out almost immediately, as you'd expect with a campaign like this. I added one to cart, but then I got to thinking, what if I like the next one better? From the initial image, and some of the ones I've seen by MLB guys, it looks like there will be some pretty slick set ups. I checked back after an hours and they were already out of stock. I would be curious to see if they share how fast they sold out.
Next Up
They said something about releasing 1000 gloves in 2025, and we've only got about 4 months left (sorry for bringing that up). If my math is right, and it probably won't be, that looks like 40 models, 25 of each? Maybe they'll change up the ratio with other models, I suppose only time will tell.
Maybe I'll be able to pull the trigger then.
