Gucci Bridge Gaming And Fashion With Virtual Trainer Paradise
Calling all Gucci fans! The eclectic brand's range of trainers have arrived on the Gucci app via the new Sneaker Garage, a unique platform dedicated to trainer aficionados. By collaborating with a series of artists and allowing users to create their own designs, Sneaker Garage sees Gucci continue to stay in tune with the zeitgeist and the Gen-Z luxury market.
The platform will unveil a new design, the 'Gucci Virtual 25'. Here's the twist: they can only be worn virtually. In fact, they are the first of their kind to exist, so the move makes perfect sense for Gucci's Gen-Z customer who want to customise their URL personas in their favourite designer garb. Digital spaces and gaming allows for users to create their own fantasies, and if anything can do fantasy, it's fashion.
The bridge between the worlds of gaming and fashion has strengthened over the past year, most notably with the uptake of custom outfits on Animal Crossing, who collaborated with Gucci on providing users with their own virtual designer wardrobe. In Gucci's own app, the Sneaker Garage expands upon the Gucci Arcade, a section dedicated to arcade-inspired gaming, by creating a virtual space for users to create their own product for their digital avatars to wear.
Sneaker Garage also allows for Gucci to foster its relationship with gamers' communities, for whom personalisation is key. Users will be able to create their own hybrid Gucci trainer design by combining features from existing designs and mixing house codes such as the bee motif and unmistakable stripe. To inspire users to get creative and put their own spin on Gucci, Michele called upon a series of artists and designers to pull from the house archives and design their own trainers. Sustainable designers Helen Kirkum and Rudy Lim, who both work with deconstructed and re-used trainers, are joined by other names familiar to trainer afficionados such as Mattias Gollin, together with artist Christopher Chan's lego inspired design. All of the resulting artworks will be displayed in the app in a virtual gallery.
The 'Gucci Virtual 25' will also launch on Aglet, the virtual trainer purchasing app, and will be available to wear on the platforms Roblox and VRChat.