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Japan’s youth sports pipeline is shrinking. Its esports audience is not. That demographic shift helps explain why Mizuno, the century old maker of baseball gloves, running shoes and golf clubs, spent this spring developing its first gaming chair, controller and stretching device, then unveiled them at EVO Japan, the country’s premier fighting game festival, held at Tokyo Big Sight in May.
The three products, developed with Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 and now taking preorders on the crowdfunding platform Makuake, are not trying to outdo…
