Aéropostale Follows Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Other Fashion Brands Chasing a Potential $55 Billion Metaverse Bet
Four phases will be introduced with an NFT drop to help build a metaverse community
As more companies and brands continue their foray into the metaverse, one industry seems poised to pop beyond the others. Yes, gaming will continue to be a lucrative mainstay, but it's fashion that analysts predict will grow to be valued over $5 billion within the next decade.
Joining the fun is popular fashion brand Aéropostale, which is being advised by MetaversePlus, to launch an immersive new digital experience called AeroWorld.
Yesterday, Aéropostale dropped AeroPax, its debut non fungible token (NFT) consisting of 30,000 one-of-a-kind avatars. In addition to receiving a unique NFT wolf or bunny, holders will also get a limited-edition hoodie, early access to the AeroWorld and access to exclusive events – both virtual and in-real-life (IRL).
Aéropostale is one of the latest examples of a fashion brand taking aim at the metaverse for the opportunity it presents for both community building and commerce. Last year, the marketing research firm Technovio estimated that the metaverse fashion market would grow by $6.6 billion from 2021 to 2026 at an annual rate of 36 percent. Deloitte said in a report last year that “the increasing number of fashion companies directing marketing spend and skills to capitalize on the metaverse market could lead to customer demand surpassing $55 billion by 2030,” citing an investment bank it didn’t name. Aéropostale joins brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana that have all made fashion forays into the metaverse.
Viktor Lindell, strategic web3 advisor at Metaverse Plus, explained that the first Aéropostale entry is split into four phases. “We’re in phase one now,” he said. “We have all of our channels launched and we have a website where you can sign up to join a waitlist. The waitlist is open to everyone but we will do a random raffle to determine who gets access to the pre-sale.”
Lindell said they’re implementing an assortment of activations, both online and offline, to try to reach the people who should be in the community. “It can be as simple as going to the store and scanning a QR code and then joining the waitlist,” he said. “That way, you have some connection to the brand.”
Lindell believes listening to the AeroWorld community will be an integral part of its success. “In our Discord we try to connect with the community, see what they can do and what they want to do and really build out [the metaverse] with the community’s help,” he said. “Our mindset is that the community is everything, so getting people in who are keen on creating something cool will be the key to creating something useful and valuable. Then together, we’ll create this metaverse.”
The community will also straddle the line between the digital and physical worlds, with activations in both that tie back to one another. Aéropostale is seeking to take advantage of the low-cost research and development the metaverse provides their fashion products. “Because we want to launch these activations with quests where you go to a store to get a clue – and then use the clue in the metaverse – we’re really trying to bridge both sides,” Lindell said. “Some things might be redeemable offline and some things might be redeemable online, so the tie-in between both of those is really important.”
It may not all be smooth sailing. The Technovio report pointed out that the current metaverse fashion market is fragmented and dominated by a few brands like Addidas. There are also concerns over privacy and security, legal challenges could be a problem and there’s currently a lack of penetration into the adult consumer market, Technovio said. As with much in the web3 world, metaverse fashion is in its very early stage with many obstacles to overcome to reach mass adoption.
Whether or not the activations are digital or physical, one thing is clear: Community is at the backbone of everything Aéropostale is cooking. “It’s not completely clear if people want to have the same [wardrobe] for their avatar that they have in the real world,” Lindell said. “It’s also not clear if buying one out of 10,000 hats – because it’s fun or cheap in the metaverse – is really something that has value. The community will be able to impact which things we send to production, starting with the limited edition hoodie that every AeroPax holder will get. We have some designs already, but the idea is to have the community offer their own AeroPax ideas, let the community vote, and then make a portion of those into actual hoodies and limited edition collections.”
While it remains to be seen if the community’s increased involvement will help Aéropostale grow and lay claim to a significant market share, its involvement may set a new precedent for how fashion brands relate and interact with their existing communities.
Lindell thinks expansion is aligned with the way technology continues to shift and evolve. “What we’re going through right now is so cool and so important, especially for community building,” Lindell said. “The blockchain offers some of the best things in the world in decentralization: Actual provable ownership and the fact that you can make communities where everyone owns what they bring and do. It’s either shared—because it was created together—or you buy one and you can always keep it as your own. I think combining that with the metaverse is the natural next step with digital communication.”
In terms of community building, Lindell foresees a bit of trial-and-error when it comes to how AeroWorld will work hand-in-hand with its members, especially when creating for both the real world and digital. “Because we have a connection to the real world—we have 500 stores spread out across the United States and some other spaces—we can activate people and have them meet up and do something offline that can then be brought online,” Lindell said. “We might see that there are certain stores that are able to activate anyone and everyone, and then those become a driving force for creating new spaces in the metaverse. That’s something I think we’ll learn along the way.”
In this way, Aéropostale could be setting a new bar for how fashion brands intend to use their physical locations as a tool to organize community members inside and outside the metaverse.
“Our plan is to have AeroPax be agnostic, meaning you’ll be able to take your avatar to all different platforms,” Lindell said. “Some platforms have their own restrictions—a Roblox dude looks like a Roblox dude—but if the community says ‘We really want to activate ourselves in Roblox because we already play there a lot," then we want to make an effort to make a new kind of collection to make sure they can enter with their AeroPax.” The hope being, with expanding access comes expanding profits for the fashion industry.