A virtual steal: the digital Gucci sneakers for sale at $17.99
Gucci sneakers usually retail for well over $500, but this week the luxury fashion giant has started selling a pair for $17.99. The catch? They’re digital only.
The Virtual 25 sneaker is a chunky slime green, bubble-gum pink and sky blue shoe that wouldn’t look out of place in a robot’s orthotics clinic and can only be “worn” via augmented and virtual reality.
Available via in-app purchase from either the Gucci or Wanna AR apps, users can “try on” the sneakers and wear them in other virtual worlds, including VR Chat, a massive multiplayer online game, and Roblox, a gaming platform whose valuation hit $38bn US after the company’s IPO on 10 March.
The shoes are Gucci’s “first digital model”, but the brand is not new to the world of in-app purchases. The fashion house already sells digital arcade games in its app, and in January began offering AR functionality, allowing customers to virtually try on sneakers and watches.
Known for its digital innovation, the brand earlier this year released Pokemon GO avatars wearing Gucci x North Face costumes, which were geolocated near retail outlets. Meanwhile, rival Louis Vuitton collaborated with League of Legends to create virtual trophy cases in 2019.
Gucci’s virtual sneakers arrive as the speculative market around non-fungible tokens heats up. Photograph: Gucci
The timing of this latest product roll out is fortuitous (or perhaps deliberate) for Gucci. Spending extraordinary amounts of money on items that only exist digitally has been in the headlines lately, as the speculative market around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) heats up, with digital artworks and NBA trading cards selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, Gucci’s virtual sneakers are not NFTs.
The sneakers were developed in collaboration with Belarus-based fashion technology Wanna. Wanna’s CEO, Sergey Arkhangelskiy, was bullish about the future of these kinds of products, telling Business of Fashion that “in five or maybe 10 years, a relatively big chunk of fashion brands’ revenue will come from digital products”.
Childrenswear is also a significant category for Gucci, and more than half the users of Roblox, one of the platforms on which the new sneakers can be worn, are children under the age of 13. So perhaps this development is actually parental wish-fulfilment: a pair of sneakers that kids cannot grow out of.
Gucci releases first Virtual 25 sneaker that can only be worn in AR
Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele has designed a pair of neon-coloured, digital-only trainers that people can try on using augmented reality and “wear” in photographs for social media.
The Gucci Virtual 25, named after Michele’s favourite number, is a low-top, high-top hybrid with a fluorescent, highlighter green upper.
The brand’s double G logo is emblazoned both on the chunky blue sole and on a dial, which holds the shoes together in place of traditional laces.
Created in collaboration with AR fashion platform Wanna, the non-physical shoes can be purchased within either company’s mobile app for between $9 and $12.
This enables the owner to wear the shoes much like a face filter so they can take pictures or videos to be shared online. Buying them within the Gucci app also unlocks an in-game downloadable version of the trainers that can be worn by users' avatars on the virtual reality social platform VRChat and online game Roblox.
Gucci has previously worked with Wanna to create AR versions of its entire real-life sneaker collection so that shoppers can virtually try it on within the brand’s app.
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“In five or maybe 10 years a relatively big chunk of fashion brands revenue will come from digital products,” Wanna co-founder and CEO Sergey Arkhangelskiy told Business of Fashion.
“Our goal as a company is to actually supersede the product photos… and substitute it for something which is way more engaging and closer to offline shopping.”
Since last autumn, Gucci has also realised a number of its existing designs as virtual wearables for video game avatars, from creating a series of accessories for The Sims 4 to releasing its collaboration with The North Face on Pokémon Go.
However, Virtual 25 marks the first time that the luxury Italian fashion house has designed a trainer that exists only in the virtual world.
Among the other brands making their first foray into digital-only fashion is Buffalo London, which recently released a flaming, virtual version of its platform trainers that were first popularised by the Spice Girls in the 1990s.
Unlike digital artworks that are linked to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – a blockchain-based certificate of ownership – these virtual items don’t really belong to the buyer as they cannot be re-sold.
Rather, users simply buy the right to wear the shoes, much like buying music on iTunes only gives the user permission to listen to a song.
Vogue Negócios: Gucci lança tênis digital por US$ 11.99
Vogue Negócios: Gucci lança tênis digital por US$ 11.99 (Foto: Reprodução)
Você compraria um acessório virtual? A Gucci se uniu à empresa de tecnologia de moda Wanna Kicks para criar um tênis em versão digital - que tem como foco a geração Z (consumidores interessados no mercado de tênis, mas que podem não ter condições de adquirir um produto físico da Gucci).
O sneaker pode ser usado em jogos como o Roblox (com quem a marca italiana já colaborou) ou nas próprias mídias sociais do comprador.
Vogue Negócios: Gucci lança tênis virtual por US$ 11.99 (Foto: Reprodução)
Desenhado por Alessandro Michele, é o primeiro produto originalmente criado para a Wanna, e não adaptado de uma versão física. O frenesi em torno de produtos exclusivamente digitais vem crescendo graças ao aumento dos jogos on-line e o boom pandêmico do comércio online.
Vale lembrar que a Gucci já desenvolveu peças virtuais para jogos como o Drest e o aplicativo social Zepeto.