Virtual clothing for avatars sells for real money

When Decentraland said that in June users could make and sell their own clothing for avatars to wear on the site, Hiroto Kai stayed up all night designing virtual garments.

Selling kimonos for around $140 each, he said he made $20,000 to $15,000 in three weeks.

While the idea of spending real money on clothing that does not physically exist is baffling to many, virtual possessions generate real sales in metaverse online environments where people can congregate, walk around, meet friends and play games.

The real name of Kai, a digital artist and Japaner. Noah is Noah. After making as much in those three weeks as he would earn in a year at his music store job, he quit to become a full-time designer.

It took off just below what Kai said.

When you have a piece of clothing, you can go to a party in it, you can dance in it, you can show off, and it's a status symbol.

In Decentraland, clothing for avatars known as wearables can be bought and sold on the blockchain in the form of a non-fungible asset called crypto currency.

In earlier this year, NFTs exploded in popularity as speculators and crypto enthusiasts flocked to buy the new type of asset, which represents ownership of digital items such as digital art, trading cards and land in online worlds.

The niche crypto assets are also attracting the attention of some of the world's biggest fashion firms keen to associate themselves with a new generation of gamers - although most of their forays so far are for marketing.

LVMH-owned Louis Vuitton launched a metaverse game where players collect NFTs, and Burberry has created branded NFT accessories for Blankos Block Party, a game owned by Mythical Games. Roblox has sold non-NFT clothing for avatars within the game Gucci.

Your avatar represents me, explains Imani McEwan, a Miami-based fashion model and NFT enthusiast. What you wear is what makes you who you are.

McEwan reckons he has spent $5,000 to $16,000 on 70 NFT wristwear item since January, using from Cryptocurrencies investments. His first purchase was a Bitcoin themed sweater and he bought a black beret designed by his friend recently.

The overall size of the NFT wearables market is difficult to establish. In Decentraland alone, wearable sales volume totalled $750,000 in the first half of 2021, up from $267,000 in the same period last year, according to NonFungible.com, a website that tracks the NFT market.

Some proponents say that wearables and shopping in virtual shops could be the future of retail.

Instead of scrolling through a feed and shopping online, you can have a more immersive brand experience by exploring a virtual space - whether you are shopping for your virtual avatar or buying physical products that can be shipped to your door, said Julia Schwartz, director of Republic Realm, a $10 million real estate investment vehicle which has built a mall in Decentraland.

For NFT lovers, physical shopping does not replace online shopping.

But Paula Sello and Alissa Aulbekova, co-founders of the digital fashion start-up Auroboros, say it could be an environmentally-friendly alternative to Fast Fashion.

Customers can send Auroboros a picture of themselves and for 60 pounds to 1,000 pounds, clothing can be added digitally.

Sello argued that the virtual garment concept could limit the waste of consumers buying clothes to wear on social media, citing a 2018 Barclaycard study that found 9% of British shoppers bought clothes for social media photos and then returned them.

For us to shift to fashion is a necessity now. The industry simply cannot continue, said Sello.

The virtual sneaker company RTFKT sells limited edition NFTs representing sneakers that can be worn in virtual worlds or social media via a Snapchat filter.

It really took off when CoVID started and loads of people went online more than originally said Steven Vasilev, RTFKT co-founder and CEO of RTFKT.

The company has posted $7 million of sales, with limited edition sneakers selling at auctions for $10,000 - $60,000. While the majority of customers are in their 20 s and 30 s, some are as young as 15.

The RTFKT's NFT can also be redeemable as a token to get a free physical version of the shoe, but one in 20 customers can get that token for free.

I didn't do the redemption stuff because I couldn’t be bothered, said Jim McNelis, a Dallas-based NFT buyer who founded NFT company, nft 42.

I try to avoid the physical stuff as much as possible.