Leveling Up Fashion: Exploring New Opportunities in Fashion through Gaming

Merging the Fashion Industry with the Gaming Industry

When most people think of fashion and gaming, they assume their opposites; they don't mesh together. Back when video games started appearing, there was no need for the fashion industry to be involved. Most games consist of pixels, with blocky characters with very little detail. Consequently, this made it very difficult for brands to penetrate this new market. It was in the 2000s that the popularity of World of Warcraft grew. In this online multiplayer role-playing game, character customization is a huge part, and brands started to notice an opportunity arising. Not only was this a significant untapped market, but it also provided a way to connect to a newer audience online, especially when the gaming industry exploded during the pandemic. Connecting through games was one of many ways to engage with this new audience, but along with streaming, fashion brands could connect outside of video games. 

Video Game Industry

The video game industry is now more extensive than the music and film industries combined. The video game industry made around $180 to $200 billion in revenue compared to the film industry, including theatrical and home viewing, which made $100 billion for the first time in 2019 before being majorly set back during the pandemic. There is no doubt that the gaming industry is a big part of consumers' lives, even more so after the pandemic. Being a relatively new industry, many brands have yet to find a way into it. But a few brands decided to jump the curb and get a head start. Vans' collaboration with Roblox, Balenciaga's with Fortnite, and Benefit Cosmetics' with Twitch are examples. 

Character Customization

One of the main components of video games is that people like to customize their characters. Many games have character customization, and fashion brands can use that to promote their products. With Vans, they decided to partner with Roblox for a long-term project. They created Vans World, where players drop into a skate park. You can show off your skills, talk to other players, and earn waffle coins based on the Vans tread on their sneakers. Vans has created an immersive experience based on its brand and what it represents. Players can buy with in-game currency different Vans accessories that they might not be able to get in real life. 

What Vans did with Roblox shows how fashion brands should approach video games because if they don't put any effort into it, gamers will notice and react badly to it. Take Coca-Cola, for example. They made a commercial where a boy is at a gaming tournament, and when he gets eliminated, he takes a sip of coke, and then the in-game characters decide that fighting isn't the answer but instead of being together as one. Coca-Cola received significant backlash from gamers because it didn't represent who they were as gamers. In addition, this set an example for other brands to ensure they don't just go around slapping their logos on games but rather take their time to research their audience, or else it could be a wasted effort. 

Creating in-game items is a way fashion brands can bring their product into this new industry, but streaming is a different, slightly more straightforward way. You don't have to worry about converting real-life products to digital ones. A popular platform for streaming is Twitch, with 2.5 Million daily users, according to TwitchTracker. Many people like to watch others play video games rather than play them. Benefit Cosmetics found through research that the majority of Women watch more gaming streams than beauty videos. 

Benefit Cosmetics

Benefit Cosmetics used this information and research to use it to their advantage and get more engagement through streaming. While they did start a Twitch account and stream through there, most of their effort goes into sponsoring other streamers through "Get ready with me" pre-streams. These are half-hour to hour-long streams before the actual gaming stream, where the content creator talks to their audience and gets ready for the stream. The process usually involves doing their makeup and talking about what they're using. Thus, it makes it seem more natural to the audience because they don't feel like a product is forcing itself on them. By doing this, Benefit gets more than half an hour of uninterrupted promotion. Such a thing is rare in the modern day, where everything and everyone rapidly moves from one thing to another. Something that Benefit Cosmetics also does is gift subs to other streamers. Gifting subs is something that gets everyone excited because it is a subscription to the streamer and gives the audience access to different custom emojis that are accessible in the chat and access to on-demand streams. Doing this creates a positive experience with the audience and, more likely, will make them seek out Benefit Cosmetics. 

It's hard to ignore all the benefits the gaming industry brings to the fashion industry. With so many opportunities opening up, the fashion industry can tap into a new market with a whole new audience looking to be stylish in their game. The gaming industry gets more exposure and recognition from some of the top brands in fashion, and the fact that it is still relatively new means many benefits are popping up for the fashion industry to make its mark. This partnership is a win-win situation for both businesses, so we can only expect good things from it. It's time to get going! Think about all the benefits gaming brings to the fashion industry and how your brand could get involved.