13/100 Interviews: Fast Fashion Developer, Designer, Metaverse
Sharon is the Global Head of Business Development at Smobler Studios, a company that designs and builds games and experiences in the Metaverse powered by blockchain technology. However, her journey to the Metaverse is far from a mundane one, having started her career as an electrical engineer, then pivoted to fast fashion, and returned to academia for a digital entrepreneurship course which then opened up the doors to the Metaverse. She is well-versed in both technical and non-technical roles. (Shout-out to Belinda Lim for connecting us!)
TLDR;
1?? Sharon experienced firsthand how exploitative and inhumane the fast fashion industry can be.
2?? The Metaverse has the potential to revolutionize the fashion industry through new opportunities for self-expression - the skins market is already worth 50 billion dollars.
3?? There is still a long way to go before the metaverse is widely adopted, but Sharon is optimistic about its future potential, with many bigger companies already extending digital arms into the Metaverse.
Theme 1: The Stereotypes of the Fast Fashion Industry Are True
After a few years as an electrical engineer at Intel, Sharon decided to pivot to fashion, an industry she had long admired. She worked as a fabric developer designer at a textile-sourcing company in Singapore, where she researched, sourced, and designed fabrics for major brands like GAP, Target, and Macy's. Her job included visiting factories, where she witnessed the realities of fast fashion, which became a source of frustration.
She visited many factories in Southeast Asia and saw firsthand how inhumanely workers were treated. The nature of fast fashion causes constant rushes to meet unrealistic deadlines and production quotas. Workplace environments are unsafe and even biohazardous, with frequent mosquito infestations and dengue cases. Workers often get sick, but managers threaten to fire them if they take time off because they must meet order amounts. This creates a cycle akin to modern slavery.
Sharon notes that sweatshop and factory conditions have improved over the past five years. Consumers are becoming more conscious of their purchases, and many fast fashion brands are reacting by starting sustainable lines of clothing and declaring company missions that address their past misgivings.
However, there is still much room for improvement. For example, brand headquarters representatives visit factories to audit them. If they find child workers, they trace the batch of goods and incinerate the entire container to penalize the factory. But this doesn't solve the problem. These children work in factories because they need the money. Kicking them out will only lead them to find money through other unregulated and unsafe means, such as resorting to the streets. Seeing this side of the industry eventually led Sharon to leave the industry despite her love for fashion. She felt hopeless and didn't want to contribute to the vicious cycle.
Not sure how familiar you guys are with the metaverse but I’ll slip this section in as a little brief on what it is. (credit: J.P Morgan report)
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Theme 2: Why the Metaverse Matters
Sharon met her current boss at a six-month Digital Entrepreneurship course during COVID-19, which marked the beginning of her journey into web3 and the Metaverse. She is currently the global head of business development at Smobler Studios, a company that designs and builds games and experiences in the Metaverse. (*Risa’s note, you should check it out link)?
Sharon believes in widespread adoption but sees at least another five to ten years before mass adoption. She notes that the youth has adoption potential because most grew up with immersive experiences such as having avatars on online games or even social media accounts. These are all intangible representations of the self, a concept that also exists in the Metaverse. Creating this digital representation of the self seems to be important to users, as most of the income comes from variables, such as the skin of the avatars, items of clothing, and hairstyles. There is a great deal in finding ways for self-expression.
According to a study by McKinsey, “for the three billion gamers in the world today, the virtual goods economy is estimated to comprise nearly 75 percent of global gaming revenues”. Virtual goods could include things such as avatars, coins, weapons, antidotes, etc.
In particular, Sharon notes the second to most popular purchase category: the virtual cosmetic items. The skins market grew to 50 billion in 2022. It is a value-creation tactic with many gaming marketplaces facilitating in-game items by big names such as FIFA, Pokemon, Gucci, and Balenciaga. It seems that the importance of self-expression in Web 2.0 translates to Web 3.0, confirming that “70 percent of US consumers say that their digital identity is as important as their real-life identity”.
However, there is still a long way to go. Nonbelievers or unawares currently outweigh the believers of the metaverse, but converting takes a lot of resources that many ventures cannot afford to spend. That’s why many in the Singapore metaverse space are targeting the legacy web2 companies that are slight believers and have a digital arm and funding to explore the metaverse.
Sharon is optimistic though, just like how when websites first came out, nonbelievers were unwilling to adopt the digital alternative of fliers and posters. But eventually, online advertising took marketing by storm and we seldom see or are influenced by fliers and posters. The Metaverse will also create a new consumer experience, a new demand never seen before.
PwC Digital Transformation Director | Web3 Advocate | AI Champion | Solving problems, building trust, connecting people, long-term impact over shelf fillers |
1 年Woohoo. Go Sharon! ????