“Plastics!”
If you’re of a certain age, you will instantly recognize that bit of dialogue, and you’ll know plastic was the future—as least according to the advice given to the character Benjamin Braddock, played by a very young actor named Dustin Hoffman. If you’re not a certain age and you haven’t seen The Graduate, go watch it. Great movie.
More than 40 years later, I have the modern equivalent of “plastics…”
Digital clothes!
I know. I know. I know…
Those two words together seem like the most ridiculous collection of syllables imaginable. What the hell can anyone do with digital clothes? You certainly can’t walk around outside wearing something that only exists as bits and bytes on your computer.
Alas, digital clothes have a very, very big future in the offing.
For a few months now, I’ve been telling you about non-fungible tokens, or NFTs—one-of-a-kind, non-reproduceable crypto that can represent everything from art to real estate to tickets and identification for anything.
Well, this is the next iteration in the NFT story.
This is a future that begins to seem very surreal—like something you’d see in a sci-fi movie set in 2093 or something.
Alas, it is a future just on the cusp of arriving. And its arrival will mean opportunities to generate wealth for those who are paying attention. (Quick note: I am not specifically recommending the names I am about to mention; I only share them to show you what’s going on out in the digital world).
I told you recently about an NFT project I’m invested in, NeoNexus, and the steampunk-meets-cyberpunk metaverse it’s building. (A metaverse is basically a shared, digital, virtual community that can be linked to other metaverses, even if they’re entirely dissimilar. Imagine walking out of Saks Fifth Avenue in New York to find that your ride home—to a colony in a different solar system—is by hyperdrive-powered pterodactyl. That’s the metaverse.)
As I explained in my NeoNexus piece, we’re all going to have avatars at some point that look identical to us (or some dolled-up version of what we want the world to think we look like). Already, a blockchain company called Metahero is working with 3D scanners that create a full-body image of a person who stands in the middle of a circular, 64-camera array.
So, there’s that—the first step in the world of Digital You.
The second step…
Digital clothes—of course!
I mean, you can’t run around the metaverse in a fig leaf.
Already, there’s a blockchain company shaping this space: Lukso.
Its purpose is “fashion lifestyle” in the metaverse. And, yes, that seems ridiculous on the surface. Who’s going pay money to buy clothes for a digital avatar?
I have five words for you…
Barbie and American Girl Dolls.
If you are, or ever were the parent to a little girl, you know exactly what I’m talking about—all those individual outfits sold separately to dress Barbie and American Girl Dolls in different attire.
Digital clothes for avatars are literally no different…well, except for their digital nature.
And just as Barbie and American Girl Doll clothes often sell for thousands of dollars on eBay as collectibles, I can 100% guarantee that digital clothes are going to see the exact same future.
Imagine: Kim Kardashian releases a special, spring 2024 collection of late-night, club-wear for avatars. Every tween and 20-something in love with Kim is going to sell a body part to buy something from that collection.
Imagine Chanel, Gucci, Burberry, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and others unveil digital dresses, shirts, and handbags. Imagine Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, and Christian Louboutin unveil special lines of digital footwear for avatars.
Because the items never wear out—they’re NFTs on the blockchain, after all—many will retain their value or rise in value as a collectible, particularly if they’re rare, one-off pieces. No different than real-life second-hand haute couture often selling for more than its original price.
This is exactly what Lukso will be involved with—partnering with fashion brands and icons to create these kinds of digital clothes for consumers to dress their avatars in cyberspace…be that for gaming, social media, or just hanging out in metaverse clubs and whatnot (which will be the new version of chatrooms).
In an age in which Millennials and Gen Y are driving societal trends, avatars are a very real thing.
And dressing them is absolutely, positively, going to be a very real thing too, and in the very near future.
When that future arrives, you can bet I’m going to own some of those NFTs as an investment.
The visionary investors who see what’s happening with avatars and digital clothing and NFTs are going to make themselves a lot of money. Pay attention to this space.
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