May the 4th special: Star Wars in Liga MX

As we all know, Star Wars Day was celebrated yesterday all across the world. And of course, the 9^th and final installment in the Skywalker saga premiered just a few months ago, back in December 2019. This movie was made with the notion that there will never be a continuation to the Skywalker storyline. Or so they say, as we know these things can change in a heartbeat. So, you may be asking yourself, how in the world does this tie into the Liga MX?

Back on November 8,^, a little more than a month before the release of “Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker”, the ownership of Xolos de Tijuana paid tribute to this historic movie franchise by having a special limited edition Star Wars alternate uniform made solely for its use in the final two regular season games of the Apertura 2019. It wasn’t just one, but two different uniforms, a home kit (red) and an away kit (white).

Photo by Eduardo Teran/Jam Media/Getty Images

There were only 15,000 of these bad boys made for sale. The theme for the home kit is a giant red stormtrooper mask which extends throughout the entire jersey, while the away kit features a giant half of a white stormtrooper mask. It was indeed a very clever and artistic design, which indeed celebrated the Star Wars franchise in an enormous way.

The same day the uniforms were presented, Xolos hosted Rayados de Monterrey in what essentially resulted in the battle for the final playoff spot. They geared up with the red uni’s for this match, and the result was not the expected one, as the dark side of the force did not intimidate Mohamed and company one bit, with Rayados stomping all over the red stormtroopers by a score of 4-0. The force had much bigger plans for Monterrey.

Photo by Gonzalo Gonzalez/Jam Media/Getty Images

The final week of the season arrived a couple weeks later, and Xolos would once again host their rival in the Estadio Caliente. This time it was Leon coming to town. For this meeting, Tijuana sported the white uniforms, which are just as slick as the red ones. The game progressed better than the previous one vs. Monterrey, but in the end, the result was still the same. Another loss was added to Tijuana’s up-and-down season, this time by a score of 2-1. Xolos placed 11^th overall in the league table, with 7 wins, 3 draws, and 8 losses.

But this marketing stunt went far beyond the win and loss column. This is the first time a club in the Liga MX has made any kind of deal with a movie or entity such as a franchise like Star Wars. And was it ever an ingenious one. Hopefully it is the first of many other interesting and original marketing strategies for other fun movies or brands.