Beats by Dre has teased 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 teaser video doesn’t offer any product or release date info, but suggests the collaboration will include a Pokémon-branded version of the company’s wireless speaker.
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. The flaming purple animations point to a possible second product design, potentially inspired by another collaboration favorite, Gengar.
The standard edition of the Beats Pill speaker currently retails for $149.99. We’ll likely get the full reveal of the Pokémon x Beats collaboration alongside a release date in the coming weeks.
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.
