Last week, we gave you a brief overview of what the Metaverse is and how the fashion industry is pioneering virtual world and digital product development in it. Thus far, luxury fashion has taken advantage of the new economic frontier and communication system of the Metaverse by using existing video games or creating new ones to connect users to virtual stores and branded online experiences.
But what is the cost of luxury fashion’s digital expansion? Should emerging designers and small-to-medium fashion brands that lack the investment capital of a fashion house like Gucci or Louis Vuitton still invest in the Metaverse’s realm of fashion? Can doing so help further growing brands’ new goals or will it slow their business’ growth? Consider the following five factors before taking the leap to integrate your brand to the Metaverse’s virtual reality:
1. Tech Barriers to Product Design
Let's be honest: tech performance can be inconsistent and acquiring new tech skills, tools, or staff members is an investment. Plus, the fact that luxury brands have invested in the new virtual frontier doesn't automatically mean that the whole fashion industry and its customers are ready (or have the means) to follow suit.
Designers, be them freshly out of fashion school or artists with many years of experience under their belt, need education and training on how to create products to sell in the non-physical world, that they can (ideally) reproduce in real life as requested. Fortunately, some classes and webinars have appeared online to teach designers not only how to create their own digital collections, but also how to better understand and navigate the Metaverse.
Before committing to something as new and evolving as fashion in the Metaverse, invest some time (and money) into educating yourself and discovering how virtual reality mechanisms, design, placement, and payment really work.
2. Costs and Time Required to Overcome Knowledge Gaps
Image Source - The New York Times
As the Metaverse constantly changes, improves, and expands, there will always be something new to learn. Think about it like the evolution of e-commerce: although new features emerge to make shopping, product discovery, and payment processing easier, it takes time and investment to adapt to the changes and learn how to use them effectively. Some of the classes and webinars on the Metaverse have no cost and are as short as a few minutes; others run over a span of 6 to 12 months and cost more than $3,000. And if knowledge is a gift that keeps on giving, it is also true that time spent studying how to create a digital collection is also time taken away from designing said collection, both digitally and in the physical world. On the other hand, there is a possibility that eventually the process of creating new clothes for the Metaverse will potentially take only a few minutes instead of several days or weeks.
The opportunities opened by the Metaverse are almost endless, but meta-curious designers will have to be good at not getting lost between them. If you feel like starting a digital fashion brand by yourself might be too time consuming but you have a budget that allows you some peace of mind, you might want to consider seeking specialized help. The Fabricant Studio, for example, “allows anyone to become a digital fashion designer”, as well as Republiqe. They assist designers to develop a 3D narrative and full digital collection to sell in a virtual reality shop.
3. Saving Space with Virtual Products
Imagine being able to design your very own collection without having to worry about where to put material samples, organize product sketches, or warehouse inventory. One of the benefits that the Metaverse offers is a reduction on the physical space required to produce and store products. For Metaverse-only product creators, no more renting studios, offices, or storage rooms for your collections.
4. Material Waste Reduction
If there is one, undeniably good quality of fashion businesses moving to the digital realm it is the amount of wasted materials that will be saved. Let’s remember that, as of today, the fashion industry is on its way to consuming a quarter of the entire world’s carbon budget (which will happen by 2050, according to the Guardian).
Designing a fully digital collection would mean reducing the usual carbon footprint for a fashion collection by 95%.
5. Worldwide Visibility
Creating a collection, be that a physical or digital one, is only the first part of a long process. There’s little point in designing amazing clothes if they end up unsold in a storage room or lost in the depths of the internet. A digital clothing line combined with a good marketing campaign might help you reach customers who wouldn’t otherwise know about your brand. If there’s one thing that the internet has shown us, it is that nothing is impossible and everything can go viral. Offering a virtual collection may expand the possibilities of your work reaching a wider range of potential customers (and investors!).
Is the Metaverse Worth It for New Fashion Designers?
Image Source - Female
Although the answer to this question is “probably yes”, many factors impact your decision whether or not to and when to launch a fashion collection in the Metaverse. Designing a 3D, digital collection might turn out to be an incredibly time consuming and costly adventure, but the public reachable through the internet might be worth it. In addition, you won’t have to worry about as many fashion collection-related logistics.
Even if it looks like, in the long run, the digital realm will become our new daily reality, as of right now there's still too many unknowns to securely make it your all-in fashion business strategy.
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