The true reason behind Riot Games introducing jungle pets surfaced only recently with the League of Legends devs shedding light on the entire concept, explaining that jungle pets were predominantly designed as a visual metaphor for jungle newcomers to understand the basics of jungling. As the League community further dives into the meat of what jungle pets mean for the game, the devs admitted jungle pets could have gotten skins.
Riot GalaxySmash pitched in the community’s discussion on League’s subreddit on Monday arguing on the role and value of jungle pets. There the dev said the developing team originally considered adding jungle pet skins to the game but that would mean pets would have to become a permanent feature, which is a commitment Riot just couldn’t make at the time.