Original Gucci shoes for $8.99: it’s not a scam, they’re just virtual

Designed by creative director Alessandro Michele, Gucci Virtual 25 was launched in collaboration with Wanna. They will ‘wear’ themselves as in a social filter

A pair of Gucci shoes at $8.99 (about 7.50 euros). No, this is not the unlikely offer of a resale of counterfeit goods, but the result of the collaboration of the prestigious Florentine maison with Wanna, a Belarusian design studio specialized in the creation of 3D models in augmented reality. All true, therefore: the shoes are 100% original. He designed them none other than creative director Alessandro Michele. But there is one detail: they are exclusively virtual, the first in the history of the brand. So there is no risk of making a mistake. To wear them just download the wanna app or the Gucci app (where they cost three dollars more), make the purchase and access the camera. Simply frame your feet to activate the special designer filter to share on social media or show off your avatars on the Roblox gaming platform.

With the Gucci Virtual 25 – this is the name of the model – it will certainly not go unnoticed. Green, grey, red, blue, yellow, white and pink, as they can compete in their own right with lidl’s now famous shoes. Target audiences, generation Z young people (under 25 years old) interested in the sneaker market but who may not be able to afford the company’s physical products.

This isn’t the first time Gucci has collaborated with Wanna. In the past, in fact, the maison had digitized its sneaker catalog to give customers the opportunity to try out augmented reality models. In this sense, the initiative seems to have been launched to continue to monitor the way people interact with virtual clothing, perhaps in view of a wider use of the function: “In five or maybe ten years – in fact, wanna founder and CEO Sergey Arkhangelskiy told Business of Fashion – a relatively large part of the revenue of fashion brands will come from digital products. Our goal as a company is actually to replace product photos with something much more engaging and closer to offline shopping.”

In short, it is to be bet that the Virtual 25 initiative will not be the last initiative of its kind for Gucci, which already in October announced its landing on The Sims 4 and in January on Pokémon GO (together with The North Face), confirming the great attention it has towards the virtual worlds populated by its future customers. Other footwear manufacturers such as Reebok and Puma have also relied on Wanna, as well as the Farfetch fashion marketplace, but never going so far as to market exclusively digital products. Now the first case. A debut to keep an eye on.