At the start of September, Vans became the latest brand to dive into the metaverse when it teamed up with Roblox to open ‘Vans World’ and offered an open invitation to young skaters to practice their flips, ollies and grinds within a custom interactive branded experience that blends fashion, gaming, sport and community.
Hosted inside the rapidly expanding Roblox virtual gaming universe, the digital environment was designed as a place for young skaters to come together to interact whilst performing stunts and tricks oin a space where they can tailor their own personal avatar’s appearance via fashion functionality led by custom shoes, clothes and a skate shop where they can design their own pair of Vans silhouettes and boards and also purchase products to wear back in the real, physical world.
The brand’s first adventure in the metaverse sees it invite all of Roblox’s (young) 46 million daily active users into an interactive Vans 3D environment
The virtual environment is themed on real world, signature Vans locations like the ‘Off The Wall Skatepark’ in California and physical retail environments which have been carefully reproduced in partnership with Roblox community developers The Gang Stockholm.
The joint initiative was promoted through an integrated, social-first campaign led by a spearhead spot.
“Individual expression is deeply embedded in skate culture, and Vans has been supporting and enabling this exact type of creativity for more than 50 years,” explained Vans’s Vice President of Global Integrated Marketing Nick Street. “With the Vans World experience on Roblox, we are empowering creative expression in the digital world, bridging the gap between virtual and real-world fashion and sports in an accessible, inclusive way. Vans is a global icon and advocate for youth culture, and we’re thrilled to bring this authentic brand experience to the millions of Vans enthusiasts where they are – on Roblox.”
Roblox VP Of Brand Partnerships Christina Wootton added: “Vans is showcasing its commitment to empowering self-expression with Vans World. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and partnering with the Roblox developer community to build this 3D experience, Vans is bringing brand enthusiasts together in an authentic and interactive way.”
Comment
We saw some stunning skateboard marketing in 2021 (remember Nike’s beautiful ‘New Fairies’ spot with Brazil’s Olympic star Rayssa Real), but the skate campaign which best points the way to the future was the ‘Vans World’ virtual experience.
Some marketers are a little snooty about Roblox’s stable of user-generated games and experiences largely due to basic, blocky graphics and young fan base. But that might turn out to be akin to turning a blind eye to the future.
After all, the platform boasts a huge 46m daily users and it has had some recent success in shifting towards a more mature and monied audience via tie-ups with the likes of Hyndai, Gucci, Sony Music Entertainment, BMG, Warner Bros and Nike.
Sure, Vans World’s virtual skatepark isn’t the most sophisticated virtual world we’ve seen this year, but it is a compelling and rounded brand experience that successfully bridges the gap between virtual and real-world fashion, footwear and sports spaces in an accessible and inclusive way. It sees skater player avatars compete in challenges and practice tricks wearing branded virtual Vans accessories and kicks.
This might be a bit goofy, but it’s a frontside to the future that even the snootiest sports marketers can learn from.
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