It’s no secret the real estate market is skyrocketing, but the COVID-19 pandemic fueled yet another little-known land rush. Indeed, some investors are paying millions for plots of land — not in New York or Beverly Hills. In fact, the plots do not physically exist here on Earth.
Rather, the land is located online, in a set of virtual worlds that tech insiders have dubbed the metaverse. One such hot metaverse world is The Sandbox, a blockchain-based decentralized metaverse.
Gucci enters the metaverse
Crafting the future, pixel by pixel. Vault is building its own virtual world on @TheSandboxGame. Discover more https://t.co/wEUMFPiNsg #GucciVault pic.twitter.com/GVW1mpyJQC
— gucci (@gucci) February 9, 2022
The designer clothing brand, Gucci is the latest addition to make its mark within this space. According to a 9 February report by Vogue Business,
“Gucci will launch its own virtual world on digital real estate platform The Sandbox, as it expands its presence in the metaverse for its Gen Z-focused platform Gucci Vault.”
Having purchased an undisclosed amount of land, metaverse fashion items created by Gucci designers would be available for people to buy. In addition to a fashion-focused metaverse space, it will incorporate fashion items for Sandbox players to purchase and wear in the game’s virtual reality.
The aforementioned space, according to The Sandbox, was inspired by childhood memories. It has been dubbed as the ‘Gucci Maze.’
“It will foster conversations about the future of fashion and the metaverse.”
Gucci vault falls in line with Gucci’s metaverse-related projects, including NFTs and its Discord server.
The luxury brand had partnered with two Roblox developers to release an official clothing collection in December 2020. It also created a virtual space on Roblox called the “Gucci Garden Experience.” Notably, some of the Roblox items ended up being scalped and resold for thousands of dollars, with prices comparable to that of actual Gucci bags.
Who else?
Different players from various industries have showcased the same interest. One of the Big 4 consulting firms, PriceWaterCoopers (PwC) Hong Kong, purchased virtual land on 4 January this year. Nike, McDonalds have jumped onto this bandwagon as well.
In 2021, around 16,000 people bought plots of virtual land in a new blockchain-linked video game. This is one of the reasons why the ‘SAND’ cryptocurrency is up more than 9,000% over the last year.
Worth noting, however, that at press time, the flagship token was trading around the $4.60-mark with a 1% correction.
