Pokémon announces new collab with Japan’s pro football association — Each club showing off its own Pokémon mascot

The Pokémon Company has been doing plenty of collaboration with professional sports this year, and have announced yet another partnership, this time with Japan’s top pro football association. Each of the 60 clubs in the J.League have received their very own Pokémon mascot, along with an overall “Evolution!” theme for the upcoming season. The collab is currently offering free souvenir merchandise to one million attendees of upcoming matches, plus even more merch and events to be announced.

The J.League’s 26/27 season will be kicking off on August 7th with a new tagline, “The J.League is evolving,” with the ambition of becoming a world-class football league. In line with the theme, every club in the J.League’s top three divisions is getting not just a single Pokémon, but an entire evolutionary line as a mascot. For example, the Nara Club, which uses the famous Sika deer in its usual logo, is getting promo materials featuring both Deerling and Sawsbuck. Shonan Bellmare, which uses a trident in their branding, is now also using Piplup, Prinplup, and Empoleon.

To show off their new Pokémon mascots, visitors to each club’s home stadium can receive a tote bag featuring Pikachu on one side and the club’s Pokémon on the other. There is a complete set of 60 unique bags in a variety of colors, and the J.League will be giving them out to a total of one million fans.

Fans can check out all the clubs’ evolutionary line mascots on the J.League’s new promotional website. More merchandise and special events will be announced for the Pokémon and J.League collab soon. In the meantime, Japan’s pro baseball league is also in the midst of a Pokémon collaboration.