Carrie Bradshaw's next dilemma: digital heels or `the manolos` of a lifetime?

María Albalá, director of the Innovation HUB at ICEMD (ESIC) and content coordinator of Inspiring Innovation.

Yes, times of uncertainty and doubt, even dilemma, are coming. Not only for Carrie Bradshaw, starring role in the famed Sex and the City, (and for its screenwriters!), but also for fashion designers.

If in the 90's a television series -still analog- brought international fame to a shoe brand, what will happen now in the metaverse? Will we covet a virtual heel more than exclusive 'manolos' that we can wear?

I don't know if we will covet them more, but we will certainly be able to show them off more. The visibility of our coveted acquisition will increase exponentially, while a 'leather and sole' heel, no matter how much it dazzles, will only dazzle the people with whom we coincide. Pros and cons, depending on how you look at it... envy will grow not only around us, but beyond!

How is this possible? For example, if I am in a virtual world, such as a video game or a social network, and my avatar is wearing virtual high heels, at that moment, anyone who is connected to that world will be able to see them (and envy them), wherever they are.

And back to Carrie Bradshaw... If a TV series made 'manolos' a trend, either by acquisition or aspiration, how can a virtual heel generate that desire or need?

Indeed, at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, the way to consume entertainment was television. And series was one of the main means of generating trends . Today, that 'serial' trend-setting has been digitized into movies and series on streaming platforms.

But if you think about it, we have long aspired to things that we discover virtually, even if there is the possibility of 'putting them on'! Especially, in the case of the younger generations, because if we explore the entertainment they consume, such as networks like Instagram, Tiwtch or Tiktok, any product that appears on them is relevant to them.

Is exclusivity where the taste lies?

There are already many brands that are creating 100% digital products, thanks to blockchain technology, which are also unique and exclusive.

Think of these products as a photograph. Photographs, like digital products, can be copied and reproduced an infinite number of times, so the unique value disappears. But as with photographs or lithographs, digital objects can be created in limited and numbered editions, so that the copies are given a unique value, depending on the number of copies that are authorized.

Thus, thanks to blockchain technology, digital products are associated with a limited number of copies and a certificate of authenticity, so that their duplication can be limited. This is the basis of the value of NFTs, unique digital products are created , with a limited number of copies, making them a limited resource, which adds value.

Jimmy Choo has understood this, and has launched a collection of virtual shoes, NFT shoes, with limited numbers, which could be obtained by auction, reaching a very high value. In addition, being a digital product, it is ubiquitous, you can have them on any device, for virtual use in online universes.

And how can we achieve an exclusive design in a digital universe where there has always been piracy? Blockchain technology makes it possible to create that exclusivity, since it allows to endow these digital resources with a 'signature' that makes them as unique as the creator wants. From a unique design to allowing a limited number of designs.

Currently, this technology allows this uniqueness. However, it is true that the design, as in real life, can be copied, but lacking that unique digital signature, it will not be the same object, nor will it have the same value. Thus, we return to the analogy of photographs, or that of limited editions. If it has the limited serial number, it will have more value than if it lacks it. It will be like buying a genuine Dior or an imitation.

On the economic or 'bitconic' issue

The purchase cost of these goods, like any other, will depend on their demand. Currently, brands that are launching NFTs are betting on online auctions, or as prizes in network campaigns to generate notoriety.

Although it is a digital product, it can be purchased, if the market demands it, just as we buy a shoe in a physical store, or in an online marketplace. This will depend on the demand for the products, and let's not forget an emerging channel such as marketplaces associated with certain virtual worlds in which you can use these goods. One example is Sandbox, a virtual world, where you can not only use the goods that brands make available to users of this virtual world, but also have a series of tools for developers to generate their own products and offer them for sale.

The value and demand for them will depend on the interest they generate in the public present on this platform. Do you want your avatar to wear Hugo Boss? Then buy the products that this brand launches!

In this way, the metaverse broadens the spectrum of who can be the next Manolo Blahnik . And the next Blahnik may come from this new universe, since, if there is a high number of users in them, interest and demand for these products can be generated in both worlds, and extrapolate it to the physical world.

In this sense, brands such as Nike are already planning a strategy to sell their sneakers in the metaverse . Brands that begin to position themselves in these virtual worlds will create a desire among the new generations, who are much more inclined to get involved in these new technologies. We can say that they will win over the consumer of the future sooner.

But the key is not to bring out products that look like the real thing. The key will be to endow these products with features that are possible in these new worlds, where the laws of physics don't quite apply. Sneakers that smoke? It' s entirely feasible to design sneakers that burn in flames. And what if they allow you to fly? Indeed! The metaverse can defy gravity. The possibilities are endless, and it will depend on the imagination and expertise of designers and developers how interesting these worlds are to the public.

In this sense, from the recently launched Inspiring Innovation platform of ICEMD, the Innovation Institute of ESIC, we want to be very attentive to those innovations that aim to set new trends in the short term, but that may come to represent a paradigm shift perhaps not too long term. And, in short, they can change our society.