Gucci Buys a Plot of Virtual Land in The Sandbox to Officially Enter the Metaverse

In its first foray into the metaverse, Gucci has acquired a plot of land on The Sandbox-allowing the iconic fashion line to create an interactive virtual experience and extend its online concept store.

Gucci Joins the Metaverse

As the metaverse keeps gaining popular personalities and companies, luxury brands are pacing up to join the roster. This time, an iconic Italian fashion brand signed itself up.

Trying to capture the Gen Z market, Gucci has entered the metaverse by purchasing a plot of virtual land in The Sandbox, a virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Gucci announced the collaboration with The Sandbox on Twitter and a Discord group with 73,000 members.

Earlier in February, Gucci teased the collaboration on the messaging platform, Discord, and since then, many have been anticipating Gucci's next move. On Wednesday, Feb. 9, Vogue Business confirmed that the fashion brand is indeed joining the metaverse.

According to the luxury brand Gucci Vault, its online concept store will be revamped to create an interactive experience, as visually imagined by the brand's creative director, Alessandro Michelle.

On the other hand, Insider requested a statement from Gucci regarding the price of the digital land, but at this time, the Italian fashion brand has yet to respond.

Gucci and the Digital Assets

Sure, this is Gucci's first gimmick into the metaverse, but it's not its first time experimenting with digital assets. Christie's auction house held an event to auction off a non-fungible token (NFT) inspired by the brand's Fall/Winter 2021 collection in March 2021.

Then, to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the brand launched Gucci Garden on Roblox in May 2021, allowing the platform's 42 million users to purchase collectibles.

Gucci also released a digital version of the Dionysus bag in August 2021. The digital version sold for 350,000 Robux, which is roughly $4,115.

Definitely, the digital transaction made by Gucci's Dionysus bag was a surprise for some. While others were busy exchanging banters on the nature of digital assets, Gucci's move was perceived by experts as a game-changer.

In November, Morgan Stanley explained that luxury-branded NFTs could reach a market value of $56 billion by 2030 and were likely to see a "dramatically" higher level of demand due to the metaverse.

"Luxury brands are exploring a number of collaborations with gaming and metaverse platforms," said Stanley.

Truly, Gucci's exploration in the world of digital assets was only a build-up further to incite anticipation and excitement from its loyal customers and attract more Gen Zs.

Now, it seems the metaverse is not the last stop for Gucci.

As part of its push into an immersive experience in the virtual worlds, the iconic fashion line posted a job opening in January for a Discord Community Coordinator with the purpose of expanding its presence on Discord.

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Written by Thea Felicity