Written in partnership with Sachin Negi
The +3 trillion dollar fashion industry is one of the many areas of business currently on course to be significantly altered by the presence of Web3, blockchain and the Metaverse. While this is not an entirely new concept, the idea has come to the forefront of mainstream media in recent times. This was particularly due to Mark Zuckerberg vocalising Facebook’s shift in focus towards becoming a key player in the Metaverse, even changing the name of the company to Meta.
Understanding The Metaverse
As a technologically abundant generation, the physical world is already quite familiar with virtual worlds. This is mostly because of gaming, in which video games offer players an escape to places in which they can customise their characters, trade items and carry out tasks alone or as part of a team. Metaverses are not far from this at all, being easily accessible (without a games console) 3D spaces intended for people to interact, transact and explore. The gaming aspect is give or take – while some Metaverses will be geared towards entertainment and play, others will be more serious and corporate in nature. Inevitably, companies will begin selling goods and services within the metaverse. The sales of digital land has already begun on a massive scale.
The adoption of metaverses could also revolutionise personal and business communications. Imagine a business meeting with 10 people who are all in different locations, but it looks and even feels somewhat as if you’re all together. In the metaverse, people will present themselves digitally from head to toe – the days of only seeing heads and shoulders on Zoom may even seem redundant by comparison. With this being said, there is now a huge opportunity for the fashion industry to leverage how people will want to present themselves in digital spaces. Like in the real world, people interacting in the metaverse will want their digital avatars to look good, as well wear clothes that reflect them and their tastes.
Faith Tribe and the Metaverse
One company who not only recognizes the economic potential of the metaverse, but is also contributing to the development of metaverse-native digital fashion is Faith Tribe. Created by iconic fashion brand Faith Connexion, Faith Tribe is a unique fashion design platform utilising blockchain technology to empower a growing community of creators and fashion designers.
Faith Tribe are bringing about the decentralisation of the collaborative creation of fashion items. They are building a platform that allows brands, independent designers and artists to not only create their own digital fashion designs, but also distribute them to an entirely new customer demographic – gamers. In a sense, the metaverse will open up gaming audiences to a range of industries, since gamers are currently the group who are the most familiar with this rising concept of conducting business in a digital 3D environment. Faith Tribe will bring fashion to gamers via stores in virtual metaverses, NFT & digital fashion marketplaces, in-game stores and more.
Despite the enormous revenue the fashion industry creates, independent designers, brands and creators still find it difficult to get noticed. Faith Tribe’s platform focuses on rewarding creators solely on the quality of their creations – therefore removing previous difficulties for creators caused by income disparities, location, race, and gender.
Designer Studio
Designs will be developed and brought to life through Faith Tribe’s Designer Studio, which will allow them to digitally design, mint and physically produce designs for fashion items. Digital assets can be minted as NFTs which continually hold the creator’s right to royalties stemming from all future sales of that creator’s design. These designs can be either created from scratch or chosen from a clothing template based on more than 10,000 Faith Connexion garments in the company’s archive.
Future Supply & Digital Demand For Fashion Goods
2021 saw a surge of engagement between luxury fashion, NFTs and web3 fashion. Numerous high-profile collaborations and successful NFT drops involving some of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands shows just how invested the industry has become concerning the exploration of digital fashion in the metaverse. As the fashion industry moves further into web3, fashion labels will become increasingly prevalent throughout metaverse and integrated gaming environments. When demand for fashion goods on the metaverse has become as significant as the demand in physical and digital stores, buyers will actively seek out digital-physical hybrid and immersive shopping experiences like what Faith Tribe will facilitate. Having said this, Faith Tribe are still heavily focused on the physical clothing items that they offer. In fact, when $FTRB is used to by a physical item of clothing, these tokens will then be burnt. This means that those tokens are taking out of circulation, creating a deflationary effect of the circulation of the tokens, for the benefit of the entire community. Yet, Morgan Stanley estimated that metaverse gaming and NFTs could constitute 10% of luxury’s addressable market by 2030, making it a €50B revenue opportunity.
Independent Yet Part of A Tribe
Fashion and luxury brands are aggressively expanding into the metaverse. While this is positive for the fashion industry, this creates a risk of the space being occupied by the same legacy brands who are currently dominating it. Faith Tribe’s platform will help balance out fashion’s presence in Web3 by supporting independent brands and designers. As aforementioned, these independent creators will be able to distribute assets to a new demographic of fashion-conscious gamers, as well as advertise themselves on the Faith Tribe website. While the Metaverse as a whole has been very keen on pushing branded products to the forefront, something the scene hasn’t seen much of is a sense of community in fashion related Web3 projects. Hopefully, a community-led culture arises in Faith Tribe where people have fun with one another’s varying designs, all while being seen and taken seriously by the industry. For instance, members of Faith Tribe could encourage their friends, family and network to wear their brand’s clothes at meta parties and other digital gatherings.
A Wealth of Opportunities
A new market is opening up which is inviting designers, young brands and creatives to discover all it has to offer them. Already, Faith Tribe has established ties with design institutions with the goal of initiating the new generation of creators into web3 fashion, and educating them on the benefits of open-source design. As a decentralised community of like-minded individuals, Faith Tribe have the tools necessary to facilitate creative growth, and bestow on its users a wealth of opportunities which continue to emerge everyday in the metaverse.
For more information on Faith Tribe: Twitter | Telegram group.
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