By
staff writer
February 14th, 2024
While the news of a luxury fashion brand involved in the digital space is still amusing, it is not the first time Gucci has jumped on the virtual reality bandwagon.
Italian luxury brand Gucci has stepped into the world of metaverse with its recent purchase of some land on the digital world platform The Sandbox.
On Wednesday, the designer clothing brand revealed its purchase of an unknown portion of virtual land on the decentralized blockchain-based 3D open-world metaverse game. The company is all set to curate subject-based backgrounds on The Sandbox. The inspiration for the same will be derived from the famous, experimental online space created by Gucci, called the “Gucci Vault”. This online space consists of products and commodities like Gucci-based Non-Fungible Tokens and vintage bags.
Moreover, not only is the metaverse space fashion-centric, it will soon roll out fashion products for the Sandbox users who want to buy and use Gucci-based attire on the game’s virtual reality. Sebastian Borget, who is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of The Sandbox, explained that with the changing times, virtual fashion has become an important part of the lives of gamers, and therefore, it is only fitting to involve a high-end fashion brand in the space.
While the news of a luxury fashion brand involved in the digital space is still amusing, it is not the first time Gucci has jumped on the virtual reality bandwagon. In December 2020, Gucci collaborated with two Roblox developers, cSapphire and RookVanguard, to announce an official virtual Gucci gift collection.
However, there’s more to it. Gucci was also involved in the creation of a virtual space called “Gucci Garden Experience” on Roblox, an online game platform. Interestingly, a few items in the Roblox collection were ultimately scalped and resold for thousands of dollars. While initially, the Gucci Garden faced criticism for assigning high prices to virtual Gucci goods, however, later in the day, a Gucci shoulder purse lit up the garden marketplace. The purse coupled with a chain strap was initially priced at 475 Robux but later was listed at 1 Million Robux. A Youtuber bought the purse at 350,000 Robux, or $4,115.
The dissimilarity between The Sandbox and Roblox is that The Sandbox is specifically crypto-based. Users can buy virtual land and products through the SAND tokens, while the game itself is designed on the Ethereum network. However, The Sandbox has already witnessed several insanely priced items on its virtual platform, with buyers purchasing a fraction of the virtual space near the celebrities’ virtual lands for hefty sums of money.
Gucci has become the leading luxury designer clothing brand to have invested in the world of virtual reality and NFTs. The firm plans to continue backing the decentralized platforms and assets in the future.