With the rise of virtual worlds, the burgeoning fashion market for avatars brought real-world brands and designs into the virtual realm. Now, the trend appears to be going the other way as companies begin to let consumers get their avatar fashions made into real-world clothes.
Avatar clothes have become big business in the virtual world, and a new partnership between Swedish avatar dress-up site Stardoll and German t-shirt commerce site Spreadshirt could allow users to take virtual clothes they create or see online and get them made into the real thing for use in the real world. To start, users will be able to take logos or graphics from popular labels in the Stardoll world and get them emblazoned on real-life t-shirts, hats and other items. Eventually, though, the possibilities could expand dramatically, Matt Palmer, Stardoll's executive vice president and general manager, told Virtual Worlds News in April. "We know through our research that kids would love to get their hands on them," he explained. "The opportunity allows us to experiment with what we can take from our world that's a simple idea that kids can customize, get made and have sent to them. That sort of translation of virtual world to physical world—I view this as the first step in looking at what that could look like for us."
Virtual world Gaia has also begun selling real-world fashion on its site, and one can't help but wonder how long it will be before Second Life and other popular virtual worlds starts experimenting with something similar. From there, of course, the next natural step will be to let users sell their real-life creations for real-world money, just as they can currently sell their virtual ones. One to watch!
Websites: www.stardoll.com — www.spreadshirt.com
Contacts: www.stardoll.com/en/help/contact.php — www.spreadshirt.com/us/US/About-us/Contact-1336
Spotted by: Iconoculture via RK
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Thanks for pointing that out, Lauri! The real fun will begin when 'avatar fashion' expands beyond t-shirts and sweatshirts, and connects with initiatives like StyleShake and Studio 28 Couture, which offer customized dress design. (Covered on Springwise here: http://tinyurl.com/2tmpnm)
Looks interesting. International fashion model Anina Trept has done something similar for mobile phones, where all the clothing is made by real designers.
The further version will allow people to use a GPS based feature to locate stores where their "in game" fav clothes are available.
You can download it to your phone here: http://mobi.aninadressup.com
Nokia wrote an article about it:
http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Developers/Success_Stories/Media_&_games/Dev_succ_i2_tecnologia_Anina_SC_1.0.pdf
Hi, can someone tell me the catch for this idea? From my understanding it seemed pretty easy and I don't really see the business opportunity in it. I thought you can print a teeshirt with any design you like or you see anywhere, take down the design, send it to a tee shirt manufacturer and pay a price then there you have the new tee shirt of your own choice.
Why do we need to go through such services? I believe this idea must have a catch but I fail to see it. Please kindly let me know.
I think the idea is all about the flexibility, you can pich some t-shirt from the catalogue or order a custom one, with your own text and design. Check http://www.developflash.com for more info about such features, we offer online t-shirt and lettering design software.
An interesting oppurtunity, indeed. There's also a similar service at the social network for doglovers: http://en.uniteddogs.com/eshop . They let you to create a custom-designed T-shirt for yourself or for your dog.
lauri | June 30, 2008 11:22 AM