Beats Announces Pokémon Collaboration With an Electrified Beats Pill Speaker
Beats by Dre has announced an upcoming collaboration with Pokémon.
A six-second video teaser posted to the official Beats by Dre YouTube channel shows the shadow of the Beats Pill speaker, enveloped by animated sparks and flames. The video, titled “Time to catch something new,” ends with an electrified Beats logo next to a Poké Ball.
The ‘electric’ animations suggest an unsurprising focus on the Pokémon mascot, Pikachu. To support that theory, unconfirmed images of a bright yellow Pikachu-themed speaker have already started circulating the web.
A full trailer was dropped within 24 hours, showing the real Pokémon edition speaker in its full glory, and revealing a second featured Pokémon, Mimikyu.
Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, giving the biggest franchise in the world the excuse to drop more collaborations than ever. We’ve seen themed hardware from tech companies like Razer, shoe drops from Crocs, and even entire merch collections with retailers like Target.
The amount of buzz going into the Pokémon brand right now would suggest any collab with the gaming giant is an easy win. However, an ongoing scalping crisis in the TCG market continues to bleed into all things Pokémon, with some commenters on the Beats by Dre teaser already deriding the collab as “The beats shill.”
Beats by Dre, which is owned by Apple, launched the first Beats Pill speaker back in 2012. The speaker has gone through a number of upgrades, most recently with a 2024 re-release focused on portability and power.
One thing that hasn't changed is the company's commitment to collaborations. Remember when the Beats Pill popped up in pretty much every YouTube channel? Nowadays, the company focuses on unique themed designs, having recently released product lines with Jennie (of Blackpink fame) and Kim Kardashian.