Metaverse is Changing How Brands Market and Shill Fashion

The metaverse is an uncanny place with alternative realities and immersive experiences. The brands are pushing to create hybrid realities by increasing their dealing with fellow clothing brands and tech companies. Cost, time, and maladies of life are avoided and overlooked when interacting with brands and fellow stakeholders on the Metaverse.

Meta on Metaverse And Much More

When Mark Zuckerberg introduced a rebranded Facebook, Inc. as Meta, he made confirmations to integrating the company’s revised mission to target the metaverse and join it with people, help communities and at the same time help them grow their business. As a result, it also announced the sale of many supporting products such as the Presence platform which promises to enable the new “mixed reality” experiences. Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headsets have also been announced to support a better experience for the new age creators. 

During the same time, Nike- an influential sports brand announced the acquisition of RTFKT, a non-fungible token studio that specializes in producing digital collectibles. Aesthetic sneakers and garments are designed to support especially the gaming community. As per reports, RTFKT was previously collaborating with teenage artist company FEWOCiOUS to sell sneakers that were real as well as their virtual versions. The latter sold 600 pairs and NFTs in over six minutes netting over $3.1 million. Nike acquired RTKFT like a storm and filed seven new trademark applications which indicated its aim to develop and sell most of Nike merchandise in digital formats such as footwear, apparel, and accessories for use in virtual environments. 

Virtual Luxury Manifested

Luxurious brands aren’t left behind. Gucci unveiled its collection of Garden Archetypes. It is an immersive and interactive multimedia experience that the brand created after collaborating with Roblox. Roblox had previously helped Gucci to release Gucci Garden, a collection of state-of-the-art interactive virtual showcases of the design and creativity of the fashion industry. Gucci had planned the show in such a way that as visitors entered this digital exhibition, their digital identities were transformed into mannequins. These mannequins, then, took shape of the general aesthetic of the entire show. The visitors could wander through rooms, and with every inch of the journey, the mannequins absorbed the aesthetic sensibilities of that room in the exhibition. As a result, the journey ended differently for each person and their virtual mannequins came out dressed in a unique way. Gucci has also joined Superplastic. The latter is known for its rare vinyl collectibles and together, these brands have launched SuperGucci which is an exquisite and unique collection of CryptoJanky NFTs and ceramic creations. The NFTs which these brands create draw heavily from the unique patterns and designs of the creators which is special to Gucci and Superplastic. The final collection is expected to be released in February next year. 

Similar to Gucci is Louis Vuitton. On the 200th birthday of its founder, the company released a fashion-centered game called The Game. In this game, the main character (and mascot) Vivienne travels the world collecting NFT candles each of which unlocks a unique aspect of Louis Vuitton. The players are limited to collecting 30 NFTs through the game one of which is priced at a selling value of $69.3 million. Louis Vuitton’s popularity and grip on the audience make it possible for it to create gas and shill its game and the fashion merch collection in the best possible way. 

Another example of proving how fashion brands are evolving digitally is Balenciaga partnering with Epic Games to create Fortnite skins. Additionally, the company also created Balenciaga-themed like the designer pickaxe and Balenciaga backpack. Balenciaga currently operates in a game format in which it offers a real-world clothing line. The shilling activities are done over the metaverse and on Web 2 social media platforms. End-users are given the opportunity to shop for Balenciaga cosmetics as well to enrich their avatars and get a more immersive experience. 

All these companies make sure they are robust with their marketing and PR in such a way that they are able to express their product in the most effective way and create maximum buzz around it. One such way of creating this is called “shilling”. It is when a certain coin or NFT is increasingly becoming a popular phenomenon of promoting through acts of implicit advertising. Fashion is exploring different heights and creators are defining newer ways of collaborating with techies and designers to come up with on-chain applications. OpenSea and Metaverse are two major portals where NFTs are created and flipped. End-users are exposed to interactive, immersive, engaging, and thoroughly engaging experiences to heighten their sense through upcoming devices such as the Occulus, etc. Textile decision-makers are finding newer ways of putting up their exhibitions to lock consumers irrespective of geographical boundaries.  

Want to learn more about Metaverse and how it is creating a buzz in the fashion industry? Join the SowtexConnect Tech Innovation Session “ B2B Experiential Collaboration in Metaverse” which is part 4 in the ongoing series of Tech Talks about Metaverse. Team Sowtex will be in conversation with Mr. Sunil Arora, Co-founder of Trace Network Labs, which is India’s first-ever project that focuses on creating real-looking avatars in the metaverse. Join us on 16th June ’22 on Zoom. Pre-Register Here.