Italian luxury footwear brand Giuseppe Zanotti released a digital fashion wearable in collaboration with metaverse brand DeadFellaz and digital fashion marketplace Neuno during the Metaverse Fashion Week this month. The debut of the digital version of the designer Cobra shoe saw high anticipation all over the MVFW.

The Cobra sneakers were bright green with a 3D snake detail wrapped around the shoe’s body. These were released in the Metaverse Fashion Week as part of the NFT collection. In addition, the physical Cobra Giuseppe Zanotti shoes would also be available directly from the brand’s website that too at a discount of 20% by using the code ‘gzcobraz.’ The offer is valid till 7th April 2022.

Giuseppe Zanotti, the founder of the eponymous brand, shared his views on the release of the Giuseppe Zanotti shoes with Dezeen, a leading architecture, interior, and design magazine. He said, “This experience allows us to open to a whole new interesting audience, people who love luxury and want to experience it through all possible means and realities. Furthermore, it’s interesting for us to explore new possible interactions between physical and digital realities.”

On the other side, DeadFellaz co-founder Betty had an equally optimistic view of the collaboration. She said, “We are so excited to work with such an iconic fashion brand leading the luxury industry since 1994. We connected immediately to the Cobras sneaker design as it is highly represented throughout our art and brand ethos, visually inspired by textures and color. We’re thrilled to see Giuseppe’s tremendous effort to transform and adapt fashion in the digital era.” 

 

 

In addition to the sneakers being available for purchase digitally, an outfit designed by Neuno and DeadFellaz would also be digitally available to the holders of neuCard – a VIP membership on the Neuno marketplace. The digital attire entails a green bucket hat, two shirts, a bomber jacket, and Cobras sneakers.

Fashion in the metaverse has been picking up pace. Leading fashion brands are not staying away from exploring and experimenting with this new tech space that has emerged and is viewed as the future of the Internet.

Brands like Nike, The Fabricant, Balenciaga also began exploring digital fashion recently. Earlier this year, Italian high-end luxury fashion house Gucci had bought digital real estate in The Sandbox and named it Gucci Vault to house its metaverse projects.

Acknowledging the potential of metaverse for fashion, Zanotti said, “We are just moving the first steps in this field, so it’s early to talk, but we cannot really exclude any hypothesis at this moment. When I listen to people talking about metaverse, I remember the first conversations we had about e-commerce: it was like a taboo, and the first experiments were not really successful,” he added. “Now, we cannot live without it. E-commerce saved our businesses during the lockdown periods. Metaverse seemed so distant from us just a few months ago; instead, now it’s the present.