The Signal: Nintendo recently released a limited-edition Switch console decorated with the colors and characters from the hit game Animal Crossing. Extremely rare, these devices are selling for $740 and up on Amazon (more than double the MSRP). Such scarcity has led thousands of people to look for other options to customize their gaming consoles, leading to a surge in interest for Switch skins.
The Opportunity: Skins are decorative stickers specially cut to fit the shape of an electronic device. They’re used as anti-scratch protection, and also as a form of self-expression, and can be used to wrap everything from phones to drones.
Their popularity is part of a larger trend in which personalized electronics are becoming fashion accessories. Unique phone cases have long been popular (boutique phone case company Maison de Sabré grew to $1.9m in revenue in its first year, we reported in February). Ditto for iPad cases, laptop covers, and even smartwatch bands.
Now, portable gaming consoles seem to be making the transition, and searches for "Nintendo Switch Skins" are near an all-time high, creating unique opportunities for creative entrepreneurs with ties to gaming culture, including:
Custom Skin Sales: Skins, which typically retail for $20 each, can be big business. Controller Gear, the top seller of Nintendo Switch skins on Amazon, sold $45k of their Animal Crossing skins last month, according to JungleScout. With FBA fees totalling $7.99, the company is netting around $12 per skin. Given that the product is a sticker, and can be produced and shipped very inexpensively, margins would be significantly higher for anyone who was not selling on Amazon.
Aside from Animal Crossing, Controller Gear’s 3 most popular skins contain imagery of Pikachu ($6k/mo), an artifact called a Sheikah Slate ($5k/mo) from the game Legend of Zelda, and art from Splatoon 2 ($2k/mo). Controller Gear licenses these designs directly from companies like Disney or Nintendo, which own the intellectual property behind these much-loved characters.
But one company, dbrand, found a creative way around licensing issues with their (not) Animal Crossing Skin -- a skin that looks almost identical to the special edition console released by Nintendo.
The company is leaning into the potential controversy. "Take a close look at the design," dbrand’s product landing page says. "Is it copyright infringement? Lawyers we paid to say ‘no’ said ‘no.’ Lawyers not on our payroll disagree. That's the exact gray area we're counting on to get loads of free lawsuit-related press."
By using the same color palette as the limited-edition console, they offer the visual aesthetic that people are after, without the $800 price tag (theirs costs just $39.95). While other elements of their design -- like the parody game characters seen in the photo above -- come much closer to copyright infringement, the color palette ripoff alone is unlikely to give them issues, according to lawyers who specialize in intellectual property disputes.
According to IP Watchdog, "Unless Nintendo can demonstrate that the pastel green and blue colors have become intertwined with its business enough to become a trademark, the video game company doesn’t ‘own’ the color combination."
Nintendo’s other limited-edition releases are often geographically limited, making them impossible for people in certain countries to buy. These people might be eager to buy a skin with a similar look. Or you could use a tool like Adobe’s color picker to create beautiful color palettes from iconic games, album covers, or works of art.
The goal here is to find and use colors that people recognize and love, but avoid knocking off other people’s work. If you’re unsure, run your design by an attorney to be sure you don’t infringe on intellectual property laws.
Marketing: Even if you already have a business, and don’t want to build an entire company around selling skins for the Nintendo Switch, their popularity offers a unique chance to engage with your existing customers.
The NFL, MBA, and even certain colleges now offer skins as a way of getting their community to represent. But most companies have been slow to catch on.
"I get requests for laptop stickers all the time," Jamie Hollister, account manager at The Perfect Promotion, a company that makes branded promotional products for companies, told Trends. "But I’ve only once gotten a request for stickers for gaming devices."
Depending on your demographic, branded Switch decals could be a fun, relatively low-cost way of standing out and getting your customers to talk about you to their friends. Unlike that branded keyring, this is something people are actually already looking for. According to JungleScout, searches for skins are on the rise:
Companies like Skinit offer wholesale printing from $6.50-$7.50 per unit. And DecalGirl offers private label skin production & packaging, and will even manage drop shipping.
Subscription: The device is literally called the Nintendo Switch. Create a subscription service that sends a new skin to users every month, so they can switch up their look and continue to garner the attention of their peers.
You can work with creatives in your network to create small-batch, limited-edition skins, or collaborate with artistic influencers on Instagram to offer value to their followers.
The recurring revenue of a subscriber base also means you could focus on much narrower niches and still create a sustainable business. For instance, you could target history buffs by making a series of unique skins from Old Book Illustrations or The British Library’s Flickr account of public domain images.
Alongside the switch, searches are trending for skins for the Xbox and PS4 consoles, and even controllers, making the opportunities here almost as varied as the skins themselves.
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