Meta is launching an online store where Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger users can purchase digital clothing for their avatar.
The first brands in the store are Prada, Balenciaga, and Thom Browne, and clothes include a motocross outfit, a logo hoodie, and suits.
“Digital goods will be an essential way to express yourself in the metaverse and a major driver of the creative economy,” he says. So if you’ve ever thought, “I would like my digital avatar to sport poorly rendered designer clothing,” I have excellent information.
Luxury fashion cottages are increasingly partnering with technology businesses to create branded digital garments. For example, Fortnite submitted Balenciaga skins the previous year so players could purchase garments like a branded hoodie for their in-game characters. In Roblox, players can visit Gucci Town, which concludes with a garden featuring the brand’s logo and a virtual store.
Despite the big names in Meta’s launch, the news dropped quietly this afternoon, and the company didn’t immediately react to a request for more details. Meta says the store will launch “soon,” though information on how users will access the store wasn’t immediately available.
Hopefully, the digital clothes will cost less than the real thing. In a Livestream today, Eva Chen, director of fashion partnerships at Instagram, previewed one look featuring a cropped T-shirt, low-rise jeans, and a white belt outfitted on Zuckerberg’s avatar.
“I don’t know I ever could have pulled that off,” he said. I agree!
Earlier, they announced Meta Store — the first physical retail space opened on May 9 on the campus in Burlingame, California. You get hands-on experience with all the hardware products in the Meta Store.
Through interactive demos, you can complete video calls to retail associates with Meta Portal and learn how Ray-Ban Stories can assist you in staying present with the world around you. In addition, it can explore the magic of VR with a first-of-its-kind immersive Meta Quest 2 demo. They also made it easier to shop Meta Portal, Ray-Ban Stories, and Meta Quest all in one spot online, in a new Shop tab on meta.com.
At the Meta Store, they want you to interact with everything. They want you to pick stuff up. They want you to feel it.
“Once people experience the technology, they can better appreciate it. If we did our assignment right, people should exit and tell their friends, ‘You’ve got to run check out the Meta Store.’” – Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store
Step inside the Meta Store and discover how Ray-Ban Stories allows you to capture and share memories without bringing you out of the moment. And you can try on a spectrum of styles, colors, and lens variations to find the perfect fit for you. You can check out Meta Portal in a particular demo area. Once inside, you can put a video call to a retail associate to fully explore its abilities, see Smart Camera in action and play with elements like Story Time.
The Meta Store features an interactive Meta Quest 2 display wall, entitling you to explore the hardware, its accessories, and the range of content available today. Last but not least is the immersive demo area, where you can test Real VR Fishing, Beat Saber, GOLF+, or Supernatural on a large, wall-to-wall curved LED screen that displays what you see in-headset. You’ll also get a 30-second composite reality clip of your demo adventure that’s yours to share.
At approximately 1,550 square feet, the Meta Store contains a relatively small footprint for an engaging experience. So it was also essential for them to launch the first Meta Store near Reality Labs HQ, where they are helping build the metaverse.
“Having the store here in Burlingame offers us more chance to experiment and keep the customer experience core to the development. What we learn here will enable us to define our future retail strategy.” – Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store.
Ultimately, the goal with the Meta Store is to show people what’s possible with the products today while providing a glimpse into the future as the metaverse comes to life — and hopefully demystifying that idea a bit in the process.
“The Meta Store will allow people to connect to how our outcomes can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future. We’re not marketing the metaverse in our store, but hopefully, people will come in and walk out understanding a little bit more about how our products will assist connect them to it.” – Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store.