When Mark Zuckerburg announced the imminent arrival of the Metaverse in fall 2021, the luxury and fashion industries quickly positioned themselves as early adopters. Leading Houses collaborated with emerging actors, like the Institute of Digital Fashion, to create otherworldly digital clothing and accessories. Other Houses released collections that clients could use to dress their avatars on Fortnite or Roblox. New technologies, like the NFT, allowed Houses to develop singular, ownable digital objects with real market value.
Despite this auspicious beginning, adoption of digital clothing and accessories hasn’t taken off. Outside of a few buzzy Instagram posts, no one “cool” is wearing digital pieces in an impactful way. NFT values are crashing. Digital fashion is starting to seem like a conceptual flash in the pan - great for spicing up the creative image of certain Houses, but not much else.
After all, at the end of the day, who wants to pay for clothes you can’t actually do anything with? Enter Nike, whose collaboration with top design studio RTFKT might just be the model that will spark mainstream adoption of digital clothing.
The “Nike x RTFKT Pre-Forged Hoodie” is an NFT garment that users can redeem for a physical sweatshirt. This physical hoodie is “AR-activated” to allow clients to change the look of the piece when viewed in the virtual world, using built-in QR trackers to add glowing wings and other stunning visual effects.
Rather than dressing avatars for a Metaverse that doesn’t quite exist yet, Nike and RTFKT have created a piece for consumers as they are today: real people who want to express themselves both online and out on the street. By letting them do both, the Nike x RTFKT hoodie builds a bridge between digital innovation and real-life consumer behavior - a winning combination for brands looking to create long-term value in this space.
1. When it comes to clothing, the digital and physical worlds are closer than you might think. Younger clients are more than ready to tell exciting mixed-reality stories with their garments.
“AR activations” and “NFT hybrids” are still far away from becoming a daily reality for most. While fashion is a form of creative expression, clothing’s primary purpose is covering human bodies. But that doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t already thinking about how their clothes look in the digital world - and very few brands are responding to that behavior.
Clothing is a tool that helps us tell the story of ourselves by acting as an externalizing medium for social messages. Dress is often a conscious reflection of how we want to be seen in the world. And today, when the barriers between our “online” and “real” selves are increasingly murky, clothing is also a highly efficient form of visual communication in digital spaces.
For example, when we choose a dress for a friend’s wedding, pick out the right tie for a headshot, or even throw on a nicer top before a video call, we’re considering the message our clothing sends when viewed through a screen. We might choose a glittery dress that will stand out in photos, a bright tie that makes us seem approachable, or a silk blouse to feel and seem professional. These decisions point to a fundamental rule of communication: context is key. We know that the message our clothing sends online isn’t quite the same as the message it sends in real life, and we adapt accordingly.
On video-based platforms, like YouTube and TikTok, clothing can also be a physical prop for storytelling. Imagine a skater that wears an open, button-down shirt that will billow behind her as she rides, showing how fast she’s going. “Setting clothing into motion” helps users overcome the limits of 10-second formats to send even richer messages, creating visual metaphors for abstract ideas like freedom, sensation, and excitement.
Finally, consumers are increasingly accustomed to “mixed-reality” tools that let them easily modify their appearance if the initial message isn’t quite right. Using Instagram filters, AR overlays, and other applications, we can change everything from the color or a garment to its physical structure with a few quick swipes.
These existing behaviors point to a market that’s primed for clothes that change as quickly as our online personalities do. Most of Nike’s consumers instinctively know that looking at their clothing in digital space changes its meaning. The genius of the Nike x RTFKT sweatshirt is giving wearers the ability to do so consciously, and at will. Nike’s virtual hoodie comes with a prescribed message of exclusivity and innovation for clients to appropriate. It also offers motion-enabled features that let clients communicate more sophisticated messages than a static image. Thus, in addition to the day-to-day utility of a physical hoodie, clients have an excellent prop for storytelling in the digital world.
By marketing to a generation of clients who make little to no distinction between their “real” and “virtual” selves, Nike’s just taken a big step for building value in this space. What’s more, they’ve fulfilled their brand promise: clothes, shoes, and other tools to help active do-ers perform more efficiently. As of right now, no one’s doing tools for online self-performance better than Nike.
2. Digital collectables can drive value, but the market for showing them off is wide open.
Digital collecting is a high-value market that predates the NFT by decades. Spotify playlists, Pinterest boards, and “favorited” tweets are all examples of digital collections that generate significant revenue for their host platforms in addition to socio-emotional meaning for their owners. Until the NFT, the value of digital collections was limited by the fact that they weren’t truly singular - they could be reproduced endlessly and disappear just as easily. The NFT is a digital technology that affords singularity, and thus ownership. And while that’s clearly driven a lot of market value, the emotional value of the NFT remains somewhat limited.
Right now, the NFT market is often compared to the art market: exciting collectables for a group of dedicated fans. But unlike art, which can be displayed in a home and has an essential societal function, the NFT is relatively invisible. Even Spotify’s Year in Review successfully leveraged social media to give clients a way to show off their playlists. But for now, the most mass visibility of NFTs has come from celebrity profile pictures. As a result, it’s difficult for users to show off their NFT collections in an intuitive way.
While our digital selves are important, they’re just one aspect of our lives. And until the Nike x RTFKT hoodie, no brand has offered owners a way to visibly bridge the gap between their physical and digital identities and show off their NFT collection in real life. A few mainstream brands - notably Tiffany - have released keychains and other products that let owners show off their collections. But the Nike x RTFKT hoodie is the first product that combines the logo-forward, accessible visibility of streetwear with digital collecting.
Giving owners the ability to wear one’s digital collection literally “on one’s sleeve” is a great move to build emotional impact and ultimately value in the NFT space by creating a product clients can touch, interact with, and feel in every sense of the world. By bringing the NFT off the internet and out to the street, Nike might just make the NFT cool.
In conclusion, the Nike x RTFKT hoodie has a couple key lessons for kicking off digital clothing.
It’s easy to get caught up in the fervor of new tech. An NFT release can create a lot of buzz, is relatively cheap to produce, and can be a valuable quick win to drive short-term image and sales. But brands are struggling to translate that early momentum into the mass adoption that builds long-term value and brand differentiation.
What makes the Nike x RTFKT sweatshirt different isn’t just that it’s a “mixed reality.” It's an offer targeted to a client’s whole self, not just an “online-only” version that exists in an early minority, proto-Metaverse space. In short: virtual outfits for avatars are cool, but so is going outside to shoot a TikTok with your friends. The brands who can successfully address the dual social needs of their clients are poised to capture the market in the long-term.
For example, a digital sneaker can be a great collector’s item. But what about a sneaker that comes with a QR code to change the color when viewed online so you can better match your aesthetic or mood? Or what about a client looking for a skirt for a summer of weddings? A fully virtual piece could help him change up the look on Instagram, but a sophisticated AR-piece that shapeshifts online could do the same - and give him something to actually wear to cocktail hour.
Digital innovation isn’t about the latest technology or trend, it stems from understanding who your clients are and what they need. Strategies that target early-adopters to build mass awareness work when those two audiences share similar drivers and motivations - to enter the mainstream, you need to make sure your offer has something people are actually looking for. That means getting close, doing the deep research, and building up from there. Until then, selling clothing no one can wear is like selling sand in the Sahara.
When Mark Zuckerburg announced the imminent arrival of the Metaverse in fall 2021, the luxury and fashion industries quickly positioned themselves as early adopters. Leading Houses collaborated with emerging actors, like the Institute of Digital Fashion, to create otherworldly digital clothing and accessories. Other Houses released collections that clients could use to dress their avatars on Fortnite or Roblox. New technologies, like the NFT, allowed Houses to develop singular, ownable digital objects with real market value.
Despite this auspicious beginning, adoption of digital clothing and accessories hasn’t taken off. Outside of a few buzzy Instagram posts, no one “cool” is wearing digital pieces in an impactful way. NFT values are crashing. Digital fashion is starting to seem like a conceptual flash in the pan - great for spicing up the creative image of certain Houses, but not much else.
After all, at the end of the day, who wants to pay for clothes you can’t actually do anything with? Enter Nike, whose collaboration with top design studio RTFKT might just be the model that will spark mainstream adoption of digital clothing.
The “Nike x RTFKT Pre-Forged Hoodie” is an NFT garment that users can redeem for a physical sweatshirt. This physical hoodie is “AR-activated” to allow clients to change the look of the piece when viewed in the virtual world, using built-in QR trackers to add glowing wings and other stunning visual effects.
Rather than dressing avatars for a Metaverse that doesn’t quite exist yet, Nike and RTFKT have created a piece for consumers as they are today: real people who want to express themselves both online and out on the street. By letting them do both, the Nike x RTFKT hoodie builds a bridge between digital innovation and real-life consumer behavior - a winning combination for brands looking to create long-term value in this space.
1. When it comes to clothing, the digital and physical worlds are closer than you might think. Younger clients are more than ready to tell exciting mixed-reality stories with their garments.
“AR activations” and “NFT hybrids” are still far away from becoming a daily reality for most. While fashion is a form of creative expression, clothing’s primary purpose is covering human bodies. But that doesn’t mean that consumers aren’t already thinking about how their clothes look in the digital world - and very few brands are responding to that behavior.
Clothing is a tool that helps us tell the story of ourselves by acting as an externalizing medium for social messages. Dress is often a conscious reflection of how we want to be seen in the world. And today, when the barriers between our “online” and “real” selves are increasingly murky, clothing is also a highly efficient form of visual communication in digital spaces.
For example, when we choose a dress for a friend’s wedding, pick out the right tie for a headshot, or even throw on a nicer top before a video call, we’re considering the message our clothing sends when viewed through a screen. We might choose a glittery dress that will stand out in photos, a bright tie that makes us seem approachable, or a silk blouse to feel and seem professional. These decisions point to a fundamental rule of communication: context is key. We know that the message our clothing sends online isn’t quite the same as the message it sends in real life, and we adapt accordingly.
On video-based platforms, like YouTube and TikTok, clothing can also be a physical prop for storytelling. Imagine a skater that wears an open, button-down shirt that will billow behind her as she rides, showing how fast she’s going. “Setting clothing into motion” helps users overcome the limits of 10-second formats to send even richer messages, creating visual metaphors for abstract ideas like freedom, sensation, and excitement.
Finally, consumers are increasingly accustomed to “mixed-reality” tools that let them easily modify their appearance if the initial message isn’t quite right. Using Instagram filters, AR overlays, and other applications, we can change everything from the color or a garment to its physical structure with a few quick swipes.
These existing behaviors point to a market that’s primed for clothes that change as quickly as our online personalities do. Most of Nike’s consumers instinctively know that looking at their clothing in digital space changes its meaning. The genius of the Nike x RTFKT sweatshirt is giving wearers the ability to do so consciously, and at will. Nike’s virtual hoodie comes with a prescribed message of exclusivity and innovation for clients to appropriate. It also offers motion-enabled features that let clients communicate more sophisticated messages than a static image. Thus, in addition to the day-to-day utility of a physical hoodie, clients have an excellent prop for storytelling in the digital world.
By marketing to a generation of clients who make little to no distinction between their “real” and “virtual” selves, Nike’s just taken a big step for building value in this space. What’s more, they’ve fulfilled their brand promise: clothes, shoes, and other tools to help active do-ers perform more efficiently. As of right now, no one’s doing tools for online self-performance better than Nike.
2. Digital collectables can drive value, but the market for showing them off is wide open.
Digital collecting is a high-value market that predates the NFT by decades. Spotify playlists, Pinterest boards, and “favorited” tweets are all examples of digital collections that generate significant revenue for their host platforms in addition to socio-emotional meaning for their owners. Until the NFT, the value of digital collections was limited by the fact that they weren’t truly singular - they could be reproduced endlessly and disappear just as easily. The NFT is a digital technology that affords singularity, and thus ownership. And while that’s clearly driven a lot of market value, the emotional value of the NFT remains somewhat limited.
Right now, the NFT market is often compared to the art market: exciting collectables for a group of dedicated fans. But unlike art, which can be displayed in a home and has an essential societal function, the NFT is relatively invisible. Even Spotify’s Year in Review successfully leveraged social media to give clients a way to show off their playlists. But for now, the most mass visibility of NFTs has come from celebrity profile pictures. As a result, it’s difficult for users to show off their NFT collections in an intuitive way.
While our digital selves are important, they’re just one aspect of our lives. And until the Nike x RTFKT hoodie, no brand has offered owners a way to visibly bridge the gap between their physical and digital identities and show off their NFT collection in real life. A few mainstream brands - notably Tiffany - have released keychains and other products that let owners show off their collections. But the Nike x RTFKT hoodie is the first product that combines the logo-forward, accessible visibility of streetwear with digital collecting.
Giving owners the ability to wear one’s digital collection literally “on one’s sleeve” is a great move to build emotional impact and ultimately value in the NFT space by creating a product clients can touch, interact with, and feel in every sense of the world. By bringing the NFT off the internet and out to the street, Nike might just make the NFT cool.
In conclusion, the Nike x RTFKT hoodie has a couple key lessons for kicking off digital clothing.
It’s easy to get caught up in the fervor of new tech. An NFT release can create a lot of buzz, is relatively cheap to produce, and can be a valuable quick win to drive short-term image and sales. But brands are struggling to translate that early momentum into the mass adoption that builds long-term value and brand differentiation.
What makes the Nike x RTFKT sweatshirt different isn’t just that it’s a “mixed reality.” It's an offer targeted to a client’s whole self, not just an “online-only” version that exists in an early minority, proto-Metaverse space. In short: virtual outfits for avatars are cool, but so is going outside to shoot a TikTok with your friends. The brands who can successfully address the dual social needs of their clients are poised to capture the market in the long-term.
For example, a digital sneaker can be a great collector’s item. But what about a sneaker that comes with a QR code to change the color when viewed online so you can better match your aesthetic or mood? Or what about a client looking for a skirt for a summer of weddings? A fully virtual piece could help him change up the look on Instagram, but a sophisticated AR-piece that shapeshifts online could do the same - and give him something to actually wear to cocktail hour.
Digital innovation isn’t about the latest technology or trend, it stems from understanding who your clients are and what they need. Strategies that target early-adopters to build mass awareness work when those two audiences share similar drivers and motivations - to enter the mainstream, you need to make sure your offer has something people are actually looking for. That means getting close, doing the deep research, and building up from there. Until then, selling clothing no one can wear is like selling sand in the Sahara.