Puma and Daniel Avakian’s Debut into the Metaverse Ignites Fashion Week with NFT’s
Puma has become the latest brand to venture into the Metaverse, doing so with a debut during NYFW. The Black Station, a Metaverse experience, links digital design to physical products via an NFT, showcasing a way that brands can use the tech to engage with consumers. Similar projects utilizing digital twins have been done previously by Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton to enrich the consumer experience.
Black Station includes a digital lobby space with three portals. The first two portals are accessible now and reveal the Nitro NFRNO and Nitro Fastroid sneakers which are linked to the brand’s recent NFT Nitropass mint. Consumers who minted a Nitropass can receive two NFTs, one tied to physical products and one to a custom experience. Following the Futrograde show, ‘minters’ can burn their product-claimed NFT and claim physical sneakers.
The third portal serves as the entry point to the digital NYFW metaverse fashion show where visitors can view a digital adaptation of the show and interact with the collection’s pieces. The experience speaks to how brands are connecting in-person events with digital ones via the emerging Metaverse.
In addition to giving real-world value to Puma’s recent NFT release, Black Station allows the brand to extend the reach of NYFW beyond its physical location. The Metaverse allows for a bridging of physical and digital spaces and has quickly become a popular way for marketers to activate large-scale cultural events like NYFW. Similarly, brands including Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY in March participated in Metaverse Fashion Week.
Designer, Daniel Avakian launched his own NFT couture dress during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week. The dress was dubbed, “tears in the rain” which was shown at Carriageworks in Sydney and virtually in a hyper-real animated avatar format.
The NFT, facilitated by cryptocurrency exchange BTC Markets, is available on NFT marketplace Opensea. The physical dress sells for $4,500 and is sold separately. In addition to the “tears in the rain dress” the show also features 8 other avatars in structured gowns all of which are non fungible tokens.
Daniel Avakian described this collection as being heavily inspired by the film Blade Runner, his collection examined how technology can be used in designs to integrate a symbiosis between human models and the digital. Daniel has plans to expand his Metaverse product offerings to entire collections in about a year’s time.
With many big brands entering the Metaverse at a staggering rate, smaller well-known brands are having difficulty creating spaces for their clothes to live in the Metaverse. One firm creating a fully-serviced bespoke digital showroom for brands is the ORDRE Group through ORDRE Meta.
ORDRE Meta is an innovative tool for luxury fashion brands wanting to dive into the fashion Metaverse. This virtual space is fully customisable and comes complete with a replica of the physical showrooms allowing buyers to navigate seamlessly with custom buttons. Each URL is also unique to the individual brand and backed by JOOR and Adobe.
Learn more about ORDRE Meta here.
