Pokemon Go Needs Better Merch

thegamer.com:

Pokemon merch is everywhere. There are plushies in game retailers,t-shirts in Primark, and they even sell the TCG in bookshops – I assume because there are a couple of sentences of text on them which in some weird way also makes them a book. You can’t escape Pokemon. It’s much more than a game at this point, it’s a brand, a franchise, a phenomenon. But why is so much of Pokemon’s merchandise so awful?

The obvious answer is that a lot of it is marketed towards children. The t-shirts, the cuddly toys, even the TV adverts are all cleverly designed so that a child sees Pikachu and then nags their parents enough that they eventually cave and let them have “just one Pikachu thing.” And that makes sense, armies of children love Pokemon and buy (or more accurately, have bought for them) entire wardrobes of clobber, but the legions of adult fans who grew up with the series – myself included – have few options.

Related: Is Pokemon Go's Latest Addition Finally Helping Rural Players?

I’ve got a couple of pieces of Pokemon gear. Some are unofficial retro-style pieces, and I got some shirts from the Zavvi ‘Pokemon Explorer’ collaboration. I’m not going to talk about the weird and decidedly unfashionable North Face x Gucci x Pokemon Go collaboration, and if I go on the official Pokemon website, I’d struggle to pick out a single item that I’d actually wear. But I’m here to talk about Pokemon Go specifically.

All modern Pokemon games offer character customisation and a range of cosmetics so you can look your best while you’re catching ‘em all. Pokemon Go takes this to the next level due to its microtransactional monetisation, and while I’m not the biggest fan of that model, there are some really cool cosmetics to be found.

This week I