Gucci is expanding its presence in the metaverse for its Gen Z-focused platform Gucci Vault by launching its virtual environment on the digital real estate marketplace The Sandbox.
The Sandbox, which allows people and businesses to buy and develop virtual real estate, has purchased an undisclosed quantity of land for the brand. In addition, Gucci and The Sandbox will collaborate to develop an interactive fashion experience based on Gucci Vault, which Gucci describes as an experimental place envisioned by Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director, which houses the brand’s metaverse projects.
Gucci did not provide any other specifics on what the virtual world will involve. Still, the brand did a post on its Discord channel that it is working on immersive experiences for The Sandbox, which is confirmed to Vogue Business on Wednesday. According to The Sandbox, select metaverse fashion items made by Gucci designers will be available for consumers to buy, own, and use in their own Sandbox experience. According to The Sandbox, the venue “will be inspired by childhood recollections of the search for beauty, which leads you to Gucci Maze,” where debates about the future of fashion and the metaverse will occur.
Gucci Vault is the umbrella under which Gucci’s metaverse-related projects, such as NFTs and its Discord server, are housed. Additionally, it revealed on Wednesday that it had created an Instagram account with the same name. Gucci Vault is also where Gucci sells old Gucci pieces and pieces by other upcoming designers, including Collina Strada, Rave Review, and Ahluwalia.
Gucci has been stepping up its metaverse approach in the last year and is a notable early user of digital fashion, virtual worlds, and non-traditional retailing. For example, Gucci recently collaborated with Superplastic, a firm that creates “animated celebrities,” to release a collection of 500 NFTs (made up of 10 total designs). It’s dubbed “Supergucci,” and it consists of a three-part drop of NFTs that come with authentic ceramic sculptures, each costing 1.5 ethereum (about $3,000 at the time of writing). Purchase access was limited to past owners of Superplastic’s NFTs and those with a unique access code supplied via Gucci Vault’s Discord server starting on February 1st. A third public drop was planned. However, it was postponed because bots would claim all of the NFTs.
