Why Gucci is making sneakers you can’t technically wear
The luxury fashion brand has collaborated with digital design platform Wanna on a pair of sneakers that only exist in the virtual world.
Digital-only fashion is beginning to feel less like a sci-fi fantasy, after Italian fashion brand Gucci unveiled a pair of augmented reality sneakers in partnership with Belarus-based tech company Wanna.
The colourful sneakers, reportedly designed by Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, are available to download on the Gucci smartphone app for approximately AUD$16, while you can score them on the Wanna app for approximately $12.
They are the cheapest sneakers Gucci has ever — and probably will ever — release. This is because they’re not technically real. The sneakers, which have been dubbed ‘Gucci Virtual 25’, can only be ‘worn’ in virtual worlds such as Roblox, the online gaming platform that’s become a hit among kids and teens.
The alignment with Roblox contains a hint as to the sneaker’s target demographic: Young people who can’t yet afford the real thing (the least expensive sneaker currently listed on Gucci’s Australian website is $750) but who still want to be ‘seen’ wearing the brand on social media and virtual chat rooms.
Read more: 5 digital trailblazers discuss fashion’s virtual future
Discussion around the digitalisation of luxury fashion has ebbed and flowed since the pandemic hit, and long before that in industry circles. In 2019, digital fashion atelier The Fabricant made headlines when it sold a completely virtual ‘couture gown’ for around $12,284.
But in recent months, the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are ‘one-of-a-kind’ digital-only assets that can be bought and sold in the blockchain, a non-interchangeable ‘token’ providing proof of ownership, has shifted the conversation around non-physical products into the mainstream.
NFTs are extremely popular in the digital art space. Just days ago, a piece of digital art by Beeple, a 41-year-old illustrator from Wisconsin, broke records when it sold at a Christies auction for approximately $89 million.
While the Gucci sneakers are not NFTs — there’s no limit on the amount of times buyers can wear or interchange them — they do represent a shift in consumer behaviour, where fashion is seen as something that’s just as relevant and valuable online as it is in the real world.
“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 the 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.”
This isn’t the first time Gucci has pioneered a digital offering in the luxury fashion realm, either. Recently, the Italian brand owned by Kering has collaborated with well-known gaming franchises like Pokémon Go and The Sims to create Gucci-branded avatars, in addition to working with Wanna on a separate virtual try-on service for sneakers.
Will the brand’s digital-only sneakers capture the Zeitgeist in the way only Gucci can? The response on social media so far is mixed. While some commenters on Instagram appear unwilling to part with their cash for something so whimsical, others have pointed out that given the potential of AR, the sneaker design seems relatively safe. Many, meanwhile, have applauded the luxury powerhouse for trying something new by investing in boundary-pushing tech.
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