She Launched An Anime Swimwear Brand During The Pandemic—Now Crunchyroll Is Betting Big On Her

James, who does not have a background in fashion design, leveraged her work making alternative designs and outfits for characters in video games to help her create unique designs for her clothing line

Atlanta-based content creator and game concept designer Jasmine James, 32, has inked a major partnership with Crunchyroll, the world’s largest anime streaming platform. Her brand, Fira X Wear, will launch three “My Hero Academia”-inspired capsule collections in 2025, following a year spent developing the line’s debut release.

According to Business Insider, the path forward for James and her anime-inspired swimwear brand, which blends cosplay and practical apparel, was not always smooth.

In 2019, while the world grappled with a global pandemic and James searched for a creative outlet, she noticed a gap in the cosplay community: anime-inspired clothing was scarce. What did exist was mostly limited to oversized men’s jackets or niche merchandise. Seeing the lack of stylish, practical options for fans like herself, James saw an opportunity to change that.

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Still, even after she and her husband invested $30,000 to launch the clothing line, James admitted to Business Insider that she initially feared her brand wouldn’t be taken seriously.

“I feel like people think it’s kiddish or only a certain age group is into it, without realizing that a lot of us, especially people in my age group, grew up with anime,” James told Business Insider.

“I had to learn what colors and what silhouettes are visible from across the map. Because when you’re playing, you have to be able to know who it is and know what their abilities are. So it taught me just the importance of color and shape and how to kind of apply those things in interesting ways to real life,” James said.

It was also important to her that the brand is accessible, not locked behind expensive designer launches, while retaining a high-quality product that is attractive to consumers.

The brand’s recently-launched “My Hero Academia” branded swimwear retails for approximately $100, both tops and bottoms, and the unisex jacket retails for $149, both relatively affordable price points.

“When you initially go into anime or pop cultural merch, a lot of it can feel very cheap. On the other hand, you’ll see very expensive designer launches. But everybody can’t afford a $30,000 Gucci outfit to look like their favorite anime character. To have them (Crunchyroll) look at what I’ve been doing on social media and look at my designs and instantly be like, yeah, we want to put our names alongside that, it’s a huge honor for me.”

Crunchyroll currently has approximately 17 million subscribers around the globe, and according to the company’s Global Vice President of Consumer Products, Anna Songco Adamian, the collaboration represents a unique opportunity for anime fans.

“Anime fans love to wear their fandom on their sleeve — literally. Fira X Wear and this collaboration is the culmination of all of that: professional design, craftsmanship, and fandom, blended into a wearable collection,” Adamian told Business Insider.