American Apparel: RL fashions come to SL

Having a "platform" that is not open to the kind of abuse and misrepresentation we've seen widely reported here this morning might even give your clients reason to consider them.

I checked it out last night. The store itself is a beautiful build; well done, Aimee. I also liked the way the signs that showed the items mimicked the design of the signs they use in their RL stores, but included both a picture of the RL item and a picture of an SL avatar wearing the virtual version.

On the other hand, the clothing seemed overpriced to me. It's all fairly simple designs, and was selling for L$250-350 per piece (not full outfit, single piece -- top or bottom). You can get more for your Linden elsewhere.

(It was pointed out by other posters that the items are sold in color packs; you're not getting just ONE shirt or whatever. I hadn't realized that; I didn't actually attempt to BUY any of them, and the store signage didn't make it clear. I retract my comment about poor value.)

Just FYI, each of the clothing items comes in a variety of colors for that price. For example, the polo shirt that I bought came in about 20 different colors I think - so it is not just a single item.

I find that the price is comperable to other SL items given the color packs. Your lindens get you on average 15-20 colors of each item which is uncommon in SL.

P.S. Oops. Cris beat me to it.

I have to say I have mixed feelings about a real life store coming to SL to sell clothing. On one hand growth is wonderful and it's awesome that an online game is drawing such attention from real life companies. On the other hand Second Life allows humble school teachers like me the chance to be a fashion designer, to realise dreams and fantasies that aren't part of every day and i wonder what impact there might be with real life corporations moving in to a game like second life.

Will old and new designers alike have to give up because they can't compete with stores that have huge corporate backing and an ability to mass produce on a scale that we simply can't do? I don't have a team, I'm one woman loading a gown while the dinner is simmering. I think overall mass market products would take a lot of the creativty out of second life and that would be sad for consumer and designer.

I've never been in a AA store, I'm curious, do they have photos of women psuedo-masturbating in their RL stores, lol?

Just struck me as a bit risque for a mainstream, Gap kinda store, but I don't know nothin' about it, other than SL...

I understand how you feel, sachi. To me, SL was a place where people could do things they couldn't in RL... like be a fashion designer or an architect or whatever. But LL seems very devoted to the idea of encouraging "real business" into SL. I don't know if that will or can work and it also puts many of it's users in the position of competing with real, established businesses when they were encouraged to "create their own Second Life" on their platform. Instead they are competing with real First Life companies, now. I don't think that's what people were expecting. But I don't think AA is going to take away anyone's business, at this point. If, as I said, some company like Victoria's Secret decided to open a store in SL.... well, that would be real competition for SL designers, I'm afraid.

Sl is a platform for creating economic opportunity. Corporations want to take andvantage of that opportunity. Sl is a marketing opportunity for RL corporations, now. Of course RL designers are going to come in and compete. The presence of the great chains is the death knell for all but a handful of desinger boutiques.

But really SL is allowing you to be a fashion designer-you get to see first hand how competitive the industry gets when occupied by large corporations with huge marketing budgets that can seel even reduced quality merchandise.

What you describe-a school teacher as fashion desinger, is SL as a game, as entertainment. the reality now is, SL is captialism, and the big boys want to play. This of course will improve the market, by weeding out the school teacher desingers who can't generate product or marketing, and will ensure that only the best gets to the market. Free trade is healthy, after all, no matter what the cost.

Of course if all you want to do is make clothes and see a few people buy them, SL is still great fun. But don't think for a second that you will easily, and cheaply, break inot the new era fashion market.

I... see. So, what is the incentive for people to become "residents" of SL again? I thought it was to be able to build, design and create your own little 3d Second Life. What you describe is the opportunity to become a 3d consumer of goods you can buy in your First Life, from the same companies, and be demoted back to nothing other than an amateur sewing in her home in her spare time, or playing with his photoshop, with little recognition or reward. You know, we can do that in RL, we don't need SL for that.

Edit to add: Unless you are saying that was LL's plan all along, to get their players to build them a base of content for free, or even on their own dime, to entice RL companies to come in and render them obsolete, and turn them into comsumers. Nice little scam you are describing.

That possibility had crossed my mind....

But really, you can come into SL and build your own little 3-D second life, and nothing will change that. I creat all manner of clothing, because I enjoy it, but I do not expect to sell it. Creating things in SL will always be a pastime. What will change is the ability to make money selling your SL merchandise in favor of that of a company who pays fulltime people RL wages to create stuff.

SL is a very innovative approach to virtual enviroments, and the ultimate impact of this sort of thing is huge. Compnaies realize it, and want to get in on the ground floor of virtual entertainment. Right now its only the more adventurous companies coming in a testing out the waters..to seee what this thing does, but ultimately SL is the sort of thing companies cannot afford not to notice.

this boils down to the question of is it a game, or a platform, and what is the priority that should be placed on entertainment value versus commercial opportunity in virtual worlds. Right now SL is all about the money, because noone has quite figure out what else to do with it.

Open registration means more casual users who will want simply to come and chat and have sex and shop and any number of activites that do not involve creating things. These people will buy and large be drawn to having the sort of things they cannot have in real life-like clothes, products and jewely, as well as houses and vehicles. It makes sense that the marketers of things like that in RL would want to occupy SL, and they bring greater resources to the table.

But, Jake, you know that one of their favorite "selling points" for SL is "come into Second Life and make real money! Be a virtual entrepreneur! Create your world"!

"Come to Second Life and buy virtual stuff" isn't very appealing. Not even with an asterisk of "you can make your own stuff, too, but forget selling it, or opening your own little store, when you have to compete with GloboCorp, one of our Valued Sponsers".

Frankly, I don't see what would be the cost effectiveness of a RL business setting up shop in what is now a rather limited online game. Yes, it's advertising, but is it worth the hassle? If they just throw up some store and put a few representative items in it, without the work of continual inworld advertising, competing with lowly "amateurs" for attention to their products, inablity to integrate it with the rest of their online presence (who in their right mind is going to ask their customers to download a 26 mb game, which their system probably can't run, to view their laggy sim?)

In addition, a lot of LL's real revenue is coming in through the tiers the content creators pay. Unless they can replace each and every one of them with a sim-buying RL business, they will lose money driving them out.

Who built American Apparel? Did that company bring in some outside graphic artists and programmers? No. They hired Aimee (and it looks as if they had someone else do some landscaping, too). No SL content creator got squeezed out. Established content creators got paid, and it's pretty likely that Aimee was paid better for the AA shop and products than she would have done selling the same stuff via *PREEN*.

Everyone making clothes and etc. was competing with Aimee anyway. The people building this stuff are the exact same content creators you've been competing with inworld all along.

And no, AA isn't earning the corporate equivalent of doodly-squat on inworld sales, I am sure. I don't figure they're going to get rich off SL residents buying RL AA products in the immediate future. What they'll get is something nifty to put in a press release, and that is worth a hell of a lot, especially for those doing it first.

And then there's the early adopter's advantage . . .

At this point, all I see is a store with a handful of items I can buy anywhere in SL. If they think that is worth the investment for a blurb on their website, good for them, good for Aimee. But it's hardly the New, Real Business SL that Jake is describing. And I think that is a Good Thing, heh.

Blurb on a Web site? Nah, magazine articles is more like it, and television coverage is likely. That's better than any advertising you can buy directly.

Plus: This technology is young. Pioneers always have to gamble an investment and wait for results. But the guys who schlep to the new territory first get the best pasture land, the ocean view, the richest mining claim, and eventually the main street and even the town will be named after them, the rich family in the mansion on the hill. The company that risks investing in new tech aims for similar results, but I'm bored with this metaphor and will let you think up your own examples. You get my drift.

It may seem "cool" if Joe or Jane reader comes across it, until they realize this is a real MMO, and they would have to download a huge client that their system may not run to even view this. It was pointed out in another thread that VMRL and the like has been around for quite a while and hardly anyone uses it, even though it's not a big deal to install a plug-in, let alone an entire, system draining game. I have a feeling that this will sound good to some companies, who may put up a store and then realize that other than maybe some online press, it doesn't get them much. But if the press is worth it to them, it's their money, of course, if they think it's worth it.

However... by the 10th time some RL company does it, it won't make much news, anymore, and the article's will turn from breathless reports into hard questions about the point of any of it.

Kim, I think your analysis is the first one I have seen yet that has nailed my experience with AA and their likely intentions.

Just about everybody seems to be locked onto this idea of AA moving into their SL virtual fashion niche to steal marketshare. As if AA is looking with hungry eyes at the economic goldmine that awaits them in virtual fashion. This isn't even close! There was no discussion about competing fashion designers or winning in the virtual market in general.

I suspect a far more accurate way to look at this project is to imagine it as an accessory to AA's clothing line. If they make a hoodie, they will publish photos of it, place it in commercials, sell it in cool stores where you can try it on, show it on web pages ... and now, you can go check it out in the virtual world.

The focus is on thier RL product and SL is a platform that makes it possible.

Io, it wasn't long ago that people thought it silly that someone would buy a computer in order to access the Web. Yes, you're right, after the first round of companies come in here and hire someone to establish their presence in this virtual space, it won't be so newsworthy. It'll be on the way to something like, "What do you mean, your company doesn't have a virtual storefront! Do you at least have a Web site? Telephone? A P.O. box?"

Also, I think you're greatly underestimating the value of media coverage. How much do you figure it costs to buy a television ad? And how much more effective than a paid ad is a feature that mentions your company, includes an interview with your spokesperson, shows your virtual space and logo, on (for example) the Discovery Network?"

BTW, I particularly liked the racks of clothes in your AA build, Aimee. I think if I were selling clothing in SL I'd want to display the clothes on hangers that way. It's funny how much more of an impact a flat clothing-on-hanger image on an alpha makes compared to a flat image on a box.

I think it will be a lot more then 10 when it won't make news. But yes at some point they will look like late adopters who finally catch up. And that's why compagnies get in early, even when the platform isn't useable for everyone yet.

Kim, I guess I'm not sold on the idea of a 3d web at this point. Not for virtual commerce or even a meaningful "virtual presence".

People shop for their avatars in SL, not for real clothing. They can do that through an "old fashioned" company website without downloading a game. (and, sadly, very few of us resemble our avatars enough to "see how it would look", and it won't look like the pixel version either, heh.) The technology isn't there, not for an immersive 3d platform, that will appeal to your average web browser. They aren't even using 3d as a plug-in, even though it's available. Other than some flash. Which does the job of seeing things, from real photos, from all sides. Other than that, what is the point of seeing a cartoon version of the items? I guess I don't see the market, other than real SL players, who already have a lot of user created content to shop from.

This doesn't mean it won't be done sucessfully in the future, it probably will, but not delivered through the kind of client that SL uses. It's too big, too demanding and too inconvenient. VW tried this too, without much success.

As I said, for some free press, it may well be worth it at this point, although the novelty factor will wear off quickly the more companies do it.

Its not that I am fixated on the idea of RL designers squeezing people out. In fact I think the presence of american apparel and other corporations is a good thing for SL. Marketing points aside, to be a platform, SL needs to have a user base, and the user base cannot be identical to the creator base. Its just logic..if everyone makes thier own clothes, then its hard to turn a profit making clothes.

SL needs people who don't want to create. And I would not get my knickers in a twist over LLL marketing. They sell it as your world, your imagination, but when you get here, you see its a platform for business.

So you want to be an entrepenuer, and make a a few coin seeling t-shirts. Fine. But don't come in expecting to profit on a saturated market and become the next munchflower zaius.
Basically, as someone pointed out...its the same desingers we all know and love who are going to get the fat commercial contracts.

There is a reason: Aimee Weber is hugely talented, and more importantly she works her ass off developing her skills. She also works her ass off promoting her product, and basically working to bring her vision of SL to life. You have got to be damned focused to be an aimee weber. That is not going to happen if you are whipping together a dress while preparing tomorrows lesson plann and tonights pot roast. Its not going to happen if you play second life as I do, and squeeze a littel screen time into an insane schedule, and try to run a balance between Second Life, RL and NHL 2k5.

So I include myself in the list of casual players, and yes I have a store, and I have made some clothes, and hey, people who aren't on my freinds list bought them, and I am thankful for that. But I am never going to be an Aimee Weber-and not just because she is much prettier than I am.

And most people are not. Most people who play SL will ultimately be consumers, not content creators.

Now RL companies have and will discover SL. American Apparel is edgy and wants to come in and test the waters. They are here, they have used a hugely skilled desinger to make thier store, and used other known designers to make thier clothes. But they are only the first step. They don't want to edge out the "locals" and frankly the cannot. Currently the SL brands are too well established. But sooner or later other corporations will come. And they will not come with the intent of edging out the locals, hell they need local desigers to fuel the creative market.

But, they will hire the best of the current SL talent, and they will keep that talent busy. The names we know and love as SL brands may survive, but really what happens when clothing people offer real world jobs to people to make clothes for SL? A lot of talent will go to the companies.

I don't mind. I like the fashion underground. If you are talented enough, there are ways for small desingers to make money. Go shopping in Santa Barbara some time...you can spend huge amounts of money in a tiny boutique buying clothes from somone whose name you have not heard of. And then there is always Coture. Custom dresses. Desinger originals.

But many people will simply do in SL what we do in RL, and go down to Calvin Klein and pick up a wardrbe we could not afford in real life. And then go tot he Club and hang out, dancing with our freinds.

Of course it helps to see that American Apparel coming inot second life is not the end of an old era, but the beging of a new one.

When someone logs into Coke Studios http://www.mycoke.com/index.html?tunnel=cokestudios no one is profiting directly by selling them soda pop for their avatar. Looks like there's some serious Coke/American Idol crossmarketing going on, though. This site has been around for a couple of years, by the way, although when it opened most people probably couldn't run it -- and it didn't offer so many activities and the graphics weren't as good. Also, sometime have a look at Habbo Hotel or Neopets.

It's a little marketing gimmick and that's probably all. It's a blurb on a website or an article as some people have pointed out. It certainly won't replace an ad campaign but it will make some hipsters feel that AA is on the cutting edge. At least for a month or 2 before it's old news and they're on to something else.

Although I can undertsand there is some concern about real companies hustling in on the sl clothing market , I think it's unlikely given that there just isn't enough money in that yet i would think to be able to sustain a few AA content creator's salaries and still have enough money left over after paying them to see it as a worthwhile endeavor.

What it is, is niftily textured build, and sort of a cool idea. I told my fiance about how the BBC and American Apparel have a presence in SL and he thought that was pretty neat. He knows nothing about SL but the idea is sort of cool to "outsiders" that you can visit these places in a virtual world.

He also found it fascinating that the CEO of a 250 million dollar company masturbates on a regular basis in fron of his employees. Now that's moxy!

I've seen it, but it is what it is, little more than an advertising platfrom for Coke, which I'm not interested in, but makes sense for them, since they have total control. *shrug*

But, then again, I am not taken in by corporate branding, so I'm not their audience, either. Kids today have been raised to be devoted to brands. Perhaps that will be the market in SL, I don't know. I'm just thinking of the practical side of this from a business perspective. Other than advertising, I don't see the movement of RL business taking over SL content as Jake does.

The businesses for whom my company contracts in SL are more into R & D and education/educational outreach than straight-up marketing, but I've been following that aspect closely for many years. I've been in this industry for a long time, and things have been on a fairly predictable course so far. Based on my own experience and observations, and the organizations, companies, and agencies I've talked with lately that are taking an interest in SL, I think you're underestimating how quickly things are likely to develop.

Well, I've been wrong before, god knows. We will see what happens.

But I also have some experience, in RL, with this, and I know that even the most sucessful companies can get all over excited by what amounts to the lastest, greatest... hype. Just because it involves the internet and technology doesn't mean it really is the Next Big Thing, especially when the practicalities aren't closely examined. But I know some people who could be convinced of that, people with a big budget and a boss to impress. *insert joke about AA CEO here*

Like I said, time will tell.

It really is a nice build though.