In 2021, Gucci launched Gucci Garden on Roblox, a limited-period immersive virtual experience in the virtual world created by the house. Later in 2022, the brand decided to make its position more permanent on Roblox by launching Gucci Town. Gucci Town has been the most engaging project, with users spending the highest amount of time in the Italian luxury brands metaverse.

A digital destination on Roblox dedicated to those seeking the unexpected, Gucci Town is a place to discover more about the House and its heritage, as well as to express one’s own individuality and connect with like-minded individuals from all over the world.

Gucci Town consists of a garden, a café, a virtual store and mini games. As per Gucci’s estimate, over 20 million users visited the 2-week long virtual destination of Gucci Garden in 2021, and hence the new Gucci Town concept made complete sense.

Burberry

During July of 2022, Burberry and Roblox created a special virtual project as the brand introduced the “Lola bag” with five limited-edition virtual designs and emotes. The brand partnered with popular Roblox designer Samuel Jordan aka Builder Boy to create the virtual bags. He is an experience developer and one of the top selling digital fashion creators on Roblox.

An extension of the Lola bag’s unmistakable and multifaceted attitude, each design expresses a unique personality through unexpected and captivating 3D textures, inspired by our house codes and affinity for the outdoors.

Prior to this project, Burberry had dabbled in virtual projects such as the B Bounce game in 2020. A few months later they launched the B Surf game, which was multiplayer. The projects were keeping in mind special festivals like the Chinese New year or product launches. In 2021, the brand launched its first in-game NFT collection in partnership with Mythical Games, with a bigger collaboration announced in June 2022.

Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren’s Winter Escape came into existence way back in 2021; the brand’s first foray into the metaverse. It was a virtual space where customers could get a holiday experience and try on exclusive styles from the brands. Curated from both archival and seasonal collections, the looks feature sport-inspired separates perfect for cold-weather exploration and adventure. Choose from Ralph Lauren’s iconic lines, including Polo Sport, Stadium, and Snow Beach.

Keeping in line with hype-culture, the brand “dropped” styles at certain times of the day. The items were gender-neutral, focussed on engaging with the younger generations. Activities in the Winter Escape included ice-skating, drinking hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows, and participating in a treasure hunt. From “Polo Shops” the users could purchase exclusive digital clothing for their avatars. The entire experience was co-designed with Roblox community creative game design and development studio, Funomena.

Tommy Hilfiger

“Tommy Play” is a virtual Roblox space by Tommy Hilfiger, a space for community members to play, share, imagine and socialize. It was launched in June 2022, when each month during that summer, there were content updates, map expansions on the platform, and product launches created in collaboration with Roblox community creators and thought-leaders.

Reflecting TOMMY JEANS’s street culture heritage, the space is inspired by Brooklyn — through a deconstructed interpretation that could only exist in the metaverse. In the mind-bending playground, users can enjoy adrenaline-fueled activities like jumping on a BMX bike to explore a vertical map of the area, from high in the sky to underground subway systems.

The space is littered with mini games where users can collect Tommy Coins in order to upgrade or or buy items like bikes, helmets with superpowers, headphones and TOMMY JEANS garments and accessories.

Once again, similar to other brands, Tommy Hilfiger has joined forces with the Roblox community designers to create the digital products. They designed the items taking into account the real products by Tommy Hilfiger and making use of the hi-tech tools available for creating hyper-realistic 3D clothing that fits any avatar body type.

Vans

Back in 2021, Vans and Roblox launched an interactive virtual skatepark, the first of its kind by Vans. More than 81 million users have entered Vans World since. At this space, the users could not just practice their virtual skateboarding skills but also buy Vans clothing, shoes and accessories from a virtual store within it. There was also a virtual shoe customization feature and skateboard builder.

Close to two years later, in April 2023, the Vans and Gucci collaborated in the real world for a capsule collection of sneakers. However, to take this project into the metaverse this project was brought onto Gucci Town and Vans World. Users could earn in-game rewards which could be used to buy Guccified Vans sneakers and a backpack.

Nike

Nike's virtual world, Nikeland, created on Roblox, saw 7 million visitors in its first two months, leveraging the expertise of Nike's acquired metaverse agency, RTKFT. Nike's digital results, including its metaverse experiences, now account for 26% of its total Nike brand revenue.

Nikeland has received over 21 million visitors to date and has been favored by almost 118,000 gamers, according to Roblox. The virtual space created by Nike on Roblox features Nike buildings, fields and arenas for players to compete in virtual mini-games. It’s modeled after the company’s real-life headquarters.

There are also virtual showrooms where users could dress their avatars in Nike apparel and shoes. Nike constantly launches new projects within this space to keep its customers engaged. The latest offering includes Nike Soccerverse where users can play with friends.

Nike Video

Alo Yoga

Alo Yoga made its digital debut by launching on Roblox in February 2022, embodying its brand ethos through an immersive wellness experience on the metaverse platform. With a goal to provide mental health support to a global community, the project called 'The Alo Sanctuary Experience' allowed users to create avatars and enter the virtual world crafted by Alo. Alo Yoga is one of the latest entrants, and has already got over 53 million visitors.

Alongside this virtual venture, the brand also donated to mental health initiatives through Alo Gives, its 501(c)(3) nonprofit, for each user who participated in the Roblox event within the Alo Sanctuary. Users had the opportunity to engage in activities such as meditation, yoga classes, and mindfulness exercises.

Puma

Puma partnered with Wonder Works studio to create an immersive sports-based experience on Roblox in May 2022. The experience, called Puma and the Land of Games, features Roblox's newest Layered Clothing technology, allowing players to customize their characters with hyper realistic Puma clothing that fits any avatar body type.

The experience includes sports mini games and training activities like lifting weights and track running, offering players an insight into what it's like to sign with the Puma brand as an athlete. The three mini games included in the experience are Endless Runner, Football Rush, and Dodgeball Showdown, each with their own unique gameplay mechanics. Puma and the Land of Games aims to deliver a compelling gameplay experience that promotes ambition and creativity, with a fun-first focus.

Forever 21

In 2021, Forever 21 partnered with Virtual Brand Group to create a fashion retail experience on Roblox, allowing users to operate their own custom virtual fashion stores within the metaverse platform. Users could buy and sell Forever 21 merchandise, hire NPCs (non-player characters) as employees, and customize their stores to become the top shop in the experience. Non-player characters are virtual characters within a video game or virtual world that are controlled by the computer or game engine, rather than by a human player.

After the success of Forever 21 Shop City and limited-edition collections on Roblox, in December 2022, Forever 21 unveiled the F21 Metaverse Collection, the retailer’s first metaverse-inspired fashion collection. The success of virtual products like the Forever Beanie has prompted the retailer to bring the entire F21 Metaverse Collection to life. To create a buzz, the brand released a limited-edition virtual accessory once per day from its latest collection for 24 hours only.

H&M

H&M Loooptopia is a game launched inside Roblox by the Swedish retailer in order to embrace a virtual world where there are no fashion rules. The game also makes for a fun immersive way for customers to understand circular fashion. Users can roam around in the virtual Loooptopia City, Rainbooow Fields, Neon Studiooo and Fabric Fooorest to collect the raw elements that can be combined together to create thousands of unique clothing items to wear in the game. The users can then use these clothes to dress their avatar.

The game also has a social element where users can trade clothes with peers, interact with them and participate in catwalk performances to flaunt their style. When customers fancy a change, they can recycle old clothes to earn super-rare elements or trade with friends to create more new outfits.

Cover and Article Images: Courtesy Official websites for Roblox, Gucci, Burberry and H&M.