How to Metaverse | Perry Ellis | PI Apparel

So my name is Isaac Cohen. I'm the Senior Director of Innovation at Perialis International. And today we're gonna talk about how to metaverse. So I wanna run through this presentation just to let you know a little bit what the metaverse is and mainly how brands have been using the metaverse for the past few years. What has been successful, and how to be able to do like a successful engagement and what's to come. I'm also gonna let you know a little bit about some of the economy behind the metaverse. So a little bit about numbers because numbers matters and everybody wants like some sort of ROI. So we're gonna talk a little bit about that thing. And then at the end of the presentation, Q&As, let's answer everything. I know there's gonna be a lot of questions, so let's try to make this fun and let's, Let's do it. So this is where we are in the metaverse, more or less. So if you think that we're very advanced and everybody's talking about the metaverse, we're not there. We're in the very early, early stages of the metaverse. So we don't know what the metaverse can do for us. There's a lot of talk about what the metaverse can do. And of course you saw companies changing their names to Meta. So it was a very hot word. 2 years ago, but everybody found out that the metaverse, it's very early, it's in a very early stage. So everything that we're doing is just the very initial stages of the metaverse. So the first time that the metaverse word came out, it was by this famous person that is called Neal Stephenson. So he said that the metaverse is a 3D virtual world inhabited by avatars of real people. And that was the first time that he talked about the word metaverse, and we owe it to him for the word metaverse. And the word metaverse, it's the combination of meta and universe, so beyond the universe. So these are some representations of the metaverse in movies. So we have seen some of these movies, Ready Player One, we have seen Minority Report, we have seen Avengers movies, and all the way back to Star Wars, we have seen all of like what the metaverse could do for us or what do we want for the metaverse to be able to do for us. So what exactly is the metaverse? So the metaverse, it's the future of the internet. It's how we're gonna digest internet and all of this information in the future. It's gonna be a virtual world when everybody can explore, they can experience, they can create, they can communicate, and they can participate. We feel, and everybody feels, that the metaverse is gonna disturb every single sector of the economy and our daily lives. IPhone did for us or this, or any mobile device did for us, we feel that the metaverse is gonna be that next step of how do we disrupt every single sector of the economy. Some users will engage with it in massive multiplayer video games, many will engage with it with smart devices to shop and experience content. But something that we do know and something that we need to think is that Every single brand needs to have or start growing a metaverse strategy from now on because that's gonna be the future of how we're gonna do digital. A little bit about numbers. So I'm just gonna run through it. So unfortunately, a lot of people are not gonna be the main targets for the metaverse. So it's gonna be not for us, it's gonna be for millennials, for Generation Zs. Represents 52% of the US population right now, and they're the ones that are using or starting to go to these virtual worlds. So the metaverse is gonna be mainly focused on them, and they're gonna be the group that is gonna spend more time and more money for the metaverse. So right now, a 10-year-old kid, a 9-year-old kid that's playing on Roblox and all that stuff, that's gonna be native for them, and the metaverse is gonna be native for them. So that's the target audience for the metaverse in the future. So what do we need for the metaverse to be successful and accessible for everybody? So there's 7 layers of the metaverse, and I'm gonna try to explain to them. So first of all is the infrastructure. We need to be able to build the correct infrastructure to be able to be connected every single time to the metaverse. 5G, 6G, all of that needs to be widely accessible for everybody to be able to participate in the metaverse. Then we're able to create the human interface. So this means the devices that are gonna make our lives easier to go into the metaverse. It can be mobile devices, it can be glasses, it can be what devices are we gonna create to be able to participate in the metaverse? And that we're seeing, we're start seeing that already being produced. Then the decentralization, and this is very important. The metaverse has to be like the internet. It has to be open for everybody so everybody can participate on that. We're seeing that slowly been growing right now. And that's the exciting part is that we need the space of the metaverse to be open for everybody. Then spatial computing, and I'm gonna talk a little bit about it in the future, but spatial computing refers to the software and to the space which combines the real world with the virtual world. So how we're gonna be able to relate to spatial computing in the future, that's gonna be very important. All the 3D engines, real-time rendering, all of that, how that is gonna evolve for us to be able to have a successful metaverse experience. And then very important, the creator economy. Why the iPhone has been so successful? Because all the apps that were created by creators. So that's also something that needs to be, it's starting and that economy needs to start growing in order for us to be able to use it more often. If there are more apps, if there's more things for us to be able to connect to the metaverse, we're gonna connect on a daily basis. Why do we use our phones on a daily basis? Because we need to check emails, we need to log in, we need to do things. So all of our tasks are done in our phone today. So what's gonna happen in the future if those apps are in a metaverse space? Then the discovery, then people are gonna start investing more money to let you know what experiences are there in the metaverse. So we're gonna start learning more and people are gonna start spending more money to let us know what experiences are gonna be there. And then finally, what are gonna be those experiences? Are gonna be games, they're gonna be esports, theaters, shopping, all of those experiences that they're gonna create and that we're gonna consume in the future. So how do we access the metaverse today? So personal computer, laptops, mobile devices, smartphones, gaming systems, and then all the future devices that are being built right now. So everything that has to do with virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. So those words are very important for the metaverse and how do we're gonna consume and digest the metaverse. It's very important that this whole ecosystem of devices are created so we can use them more and more. So what's spatial computing? So spatial computing was first defined by Simon Greenwood and his definition, it's very important, man, I think, and I'm gonna read it because he talks about it very specially. So spatial computing is a human interaction with a machine in which the machine retains and manipulates reference to real world, real objects and spaces. So we're already seeing this out there. We're already seeing how these devices are gonna allow us to still be in the real world, but then use the real world and scan the real world to be able to see all of these digital assets and digital interfaces. And that spatial computer is to be able to combine real world, physics with the digital machine generating what we call digital assets, if we want to call it that way. In the future, we're going to have our own digital assistant. So we think that Siri is our digital assistant. No, it's going to be our own personal digital assistant that it might look like us. It might look like somebody else. But in the future, maybe that digital assistant is going to run some errands or going to do something for us while we're doing something else. So that's gonna be the future of where we are. And there's no real truth of what's coming, but all of these things are being built as we speak. So these are some renderings of how the metaverse looks today or how do we want it to look at today. So we have our device and then we have our real world scenario and then the different digital assets interacting to that real world and to whatever physics that real world brings in. So again, you're using that device, you're playing a game on top of a table, that table exists, is your own table, and you were able to do all of this manipulation. And this one we saw from Apple last month is that how we're gonna start engaging in our own canvas. So think about this being an infinite canvas that right now I can have a screen here, I can talk to somebody here, I can do something else right here, but I'm using the real world space to be able to do all of that. So a little bit about the metaverse in apparel. So the first thing that started the whole metaverse trend in apparel was NFTs. So non-fungible token. So a non-fungible token, it's like a digital unit that it's unique to you. And it can be a video, it can be an image, it can be something like that. So different brands were doing different things with that NFT. And there was this whole NFT craze at the beginning, like I would say, 2 years ago, everybody was doing an NFT and everybody got a lot of money behind the NFT. Nobody knew what they were gonna do with the NFT, but everybody bought an NFT. So, which is a real thing. Everybody spent a lot of money with the NFTs. Something that Gucci did which I liked a lot is that they were generating like a digital shoe for you, but you can actually interact with the digital shoe. You were able to take out your phone and you were able to scan your feet and you were able to digitally wear this shoe. So there was some sort of interaction with that NFT. So it had some value for you if you feel that was valuable. Other brands like Burberry and Karl Lagerfeld, they're creating their own NFT. They made a lot of money. But it started the conversation about digital ownership. So now we're owning something that is digital instead of something that is physical. And that whole conversation it's what's gonna change the way that we look at stuff, and that's what's gonna change the way that we look about the metaverse economy in the future. Another idea with Roblox, Vans created the Roblox world where you can go in, you can purchase digital garments, and you can play around with Vans. So you're targeting a different audience that actually finds this as being something useful because they go to Roblox, they still play, and they're finding a new brand, and they were able to relate with the brand. Same thing with Balenciaga. They did an interaction with Fortnite. The cool thing about this interaction is that they not only created digital assets, they also created a physical collection that goes along with that digital asset. So now we're seeing two types of different combinations. You're doing something digital, but you're bringing that digital into the real world. So you're making real-life connections for something that was digital-only native. So that's how the brands are starting to do their storytelling, which is pretty cool. Also Ralph Lauren did something with ZEPETO. ZEPETO, it's a metaverse that is widely used mainly in Asia, in Korea. So they also created their line. And then Tommy did something pretty good, and there's the video, and I like it very much. One of the main issues with the metaverse today is that the metaverse today is if you create something in one world, you're not able to use it in another world. So for Metaverse Fashion Week, which was in March, Tommy created their Tommy House. And what they did is that they created one digital asset, which was a jacket, but they created it in different worlds. So everybody could use it in different worlds. So that's pretty cool because that didn't say like you only can wear it in Decentraland, or you can only wear it in Roblox, or this. You were able to use this digital asset in many different games and in very different platforms. And that's the idea for the future, is to be able to use your digital assets all over the place. And that's something that the industry has to work on. Right now, all of these metaverses are very closed. So if you don't build something for that metaverse, you're not able to use it in other metaverse. So we need to be able to open it up. And what Tommy did was pretty cool because they created their house and okay, you have to get it, different garments, but you were able to get the garment for the place that you wanna use it. And then we have the metaverse use case for Nike, which is pretty cool because Nike thought about it from the get-go. So they said like, right now we're a physical company, but we need to create a brand that is also digital. So they, in 2021, they bought a brand that was doing that, so they bought a digital shoe brand and they said, "Okay, they're doing digital shoes. We're a shoe company. We need to own the digital shoe space as well." So right now when Nike presents themselves, they present themselves so we have Nike as a brand, we have Jordan, we have Converse, but RTFKT, it's also part of our portfolio and it's a digital-only brand. So they're seeing that digital only, it's gonna be the future and they're already investing on that. And then they went one step further and created Nike Line in Roblox and they created a whole experience of people that can go into Nike Line in Roblox, they can play with different experiences that Nike built, but they can also start seeing Nike products inside this digital show. So it's creating an emotional interaction between the user and the brand. And then if you are able to see the brand in a digital way, then what happens next? Maybe I'm gonna go and shop the brand in the physical world. Why not? And then latest thing that they're doing is that they also created a space within Fortnite that also tells the brand story, also engages with you with the brand and be able to do that. So the entire mentality of that Nike case study, which I found very exciting, is because they were true to themselves and they were able to tell a story. So good metaverse strategies, and I'm gonna change this slide, it's all about storytelling and all about communicating with your community, building that community in the metaverse. Make it fun, make an experience that it's different from what you're doing today. And if you're able to generate that engagement, then you're able to create some more actions into the metaverse. Something that we as Periellis did, so I'm just gonna go run through it pretty fast. We created an NFT, it was pretty cool. Then we were part of the first Metaverse Fashion Week, so we created a store with Periellis America. We also did something for Pride Week, So everything that we're doing, we're following that mindset that we're doing something physical for something digital for something that we already have physical so that we can create that interaction. We also created a whole experience with one of our lighting brands. So we were able to create like an entire, the brand, it's called Cubavera. It's a Cuban type of brand. So we were able to create that experience. We did a livestream for a concert and there's the avatar of the livestream playing the music and then there's the people dancing and wearing different type of garments and changing and created that sort of connection. So that was pretty cool as well. And then we also did for the metaverse last, for this year's Metaverse Fashion Week, we created a whole experience with the company of DressX and we created something for Original Penguin, which is one of our brands as well. So a little bit about the metaverse economy as a whole. Sorry, so PwC said that the metaverse economy can be worth $1 trillion by 2030. Sorry, that's $1.5 trillion by 2030. So that's what they're saying that the economy of the metaverse can be. And that's why people are thinking about the metaverse for the longer run. And this is also about the metaverse economy for fashion. So the US metaverse fashion market will total $1.2 billion in 2023, up 23% over last year. And that's huge, $1.2 billion just in digital assets. That's huge. And that's something that every single company needs to start thinking about. It's how can we get a little bit of a piece of that? So I got all this, all this information comes from Quartzsite, so you can also see it, but you can see how, what the brands are doing and how the brands are investing into the metaverse. And you can see that if you got a good metaverse strategy, then you get more traction behind it. So Nike has been the one that has been generating more value in the metaverse because of what we just told you, is because they're generating that strategy, they're building that strategy behind the metaverse. Then you have the more luxury brands, Dolce Gabbana, Gucci, Adidas, and be able to generate these type of different interactions within the metaverse, but it's generating money for them. Here's a little bit about what people are shopping inside the metaverse. It's clothing, jewelry, footwear, handbags, accessories, Here's a little bit of a description of what's happening there. And this is how much time people, or their interest in the metaverse, and so how much they will be willing to spend in the metaverse. So if you see that, like 50% are willing to spend over $500 in the metaverse, should tell you something, that people are willing to spend some money inside the metaverse. And I don't know if we're gonna have time for all of this, so I have 10 minutes, so I'm gonna do it pretty fast. There's a pretty, great use case that came out from Roblox with Parsons. And it talks about how the metaverse is changing the way that we teach our students how to design. So it's very important that the designers today are thinking in a totally different mindset because they're thinking about not only designing for the real world, but they're also thinking about designing for the digital world. And that's very important if we wanna grow this, whole ecosystem. So these are all the numbers that Roblox did in 2022. So more than 11.5 million creators designed over 62 million virtual clothing and accessories in Roblox. Roblox accessories and digital wearables are a whole economy by themselves. And you can see the numbers here and I'm going to read through them, but you can see all of the Gen Zs, going into Roblox, creating the avatars. For the Gen Zs there, the creation of the avatar is very important. How do they dress their avatar? Because it's their own persona or the persona that they think that they're gonna create in the digital world. And that's how they socialize today in, for them, they socializing inside of Roblox. So they don't go outside and meet with their friends. They say, okay, I'll meet you inside of Roblox in 2 hours and they spend, 2, 3 hours inside of Roblox and their avatar tells a lot about themselves. So why do we spend $100 in shoes in the real world? It's because we wanna show off. We wanna show people that this is fashion for us. They're doing the same but in the digital world. So a little bit about the findings about this story that happens is that the reports, they clearly demonstrate that for many customers, the digital identity is not always about replicating their style in real world, but it's about expressing themselves throughout their digital selves. So they're thinking about their digital selves as something different, something that they can, that they can aspire to be able to create. So maybe they're not that person in real world, but in the digital world they can be anybody. So that's very important. The next generation of fashion designers and brands will be deeply immersed in digital fashion dressing avatars, designing 3D digital versions of collections, and creating metaverse-exclusive items. And this is happening right now. So every company needs to start thinking about our 3D strategy needs to be able to also introduce some sort of digital collection and digital aspects to it. And then digital fashion and that of the profession of digital fashion designer is transforming the fashion industry and designing practices. And it will only continue to do so. And I love this quote, and you guys can read it, but this is 100% true. The next Coco Chanel can be a girl, a 10-year-old girl thinking about designing something digital. So that's what's gonna happen in the future. I love this quote, and this is something that we need to start thinking about, and this is something that all the institutions start thinking about, and I love that Parsons, did that with Roblox because it starts changing the mindset of what we're doing. So these are the key challenges right now. So interoperability issues. I already told you guys that these are the main key challenges because if you build something in one world, you're not able to take it to another world. So until we figure out those issues, the metaverse is not gonna be open for everybody. Then the technical complexities, Rendering issues, real-time connection. If you don't have a connection, then you're not able to go into these experiences. So all of that. Privacy and security concerns, 100%, it's an issue, and we need to figure out how to make all this process a little bit safer. There's not a lot of talent, and that's true. We need to generate more talent out there. There needs to be more people that are able to generate all of these 3D assets. And a lot of companies still don't know how the metaverse is gonna impact their business. I can tell you that firsthand that it's hard to generate value inside the metaverse. It's hard to generate value on the platform that you wanna generate value. The metaverse right now, it's not for everybody. We all want to talk about that, yes, we wanna do a metaverse thing, but what's the real ROI today behind everything that we're doing. And brands are finding that out and this is because it's too soon. It's too soon to generate a lot of money. Some companies are generating a lot of money, but it doesn't mean that it's a business for everybody. So everybody has to be patient and create a strategy behind it, but make sure that you don't think that you're gonna get an immediate ROI behind it. And customer awareness. Not everybody goes to the metaverse, not everybody's, logging into Fortnite or to doing that. We know that it's only a specific group of people, but we have to be honest, they're not a group of people that make money. So they're taking the money from their parents to be able to buy this. So we have to make sure that we are able to bring this up to everybody. This is some of the metaverses that are out there. Most of them are closed, some of them are open, but the ones that are open, not everybody's going to them. So we need to make sure that the metaverse is open for everybody. And finally, and I can't believe that I made it on time, yes. This happened a month ago, so I'm gonna let it play and then we can talk about it a little bit. <LYRICS>I said, "Dreamer, you say you are a dreamer. Well, can you put your hands</LYRICS> Dream dream dream dream! Hey, look at it— that's cool! Can you put your hands on your head? Oh no! Toast! Eh! Oh! All right, so Apple didn't pay me to run this, so everybody knows. But it's very important what Apple is doing. So this is the main, the first hardware development that Apple has done in the past few years since the iPhone. And they're betting a lot into this. The good thing that what Apple is doing here is that Apple has this whole creator ecosystem. So now we're going to start seeing these whole app creators probably creating apps for the Apple Vision Pro and getting us to be able to do things, different things that we want to do. Before that, there were not a lot of creators, but by Apple doing this, They're asking their whole creator system like, hey guys, we have the device, it's version 1. You guys all remember how the first iPhone was. We were very excited, but it's not how the iPhone is today. So technology is advancing a lot. So is this gonna be the real beginning for all of us to be able to start using the metaverse somehow? We don't know, but at least it's a good starting point for us to start thinking about, okay, now we have a device, now we have a company that's behind us trying to do this. Are they gonna create more things for us to be able to interact? Is this something that I'm gonna use in my daily routine? Is this now how I'm gonna work? Is this now how I'm gonna watch movies? Is this now how I'm gonna interact? We don't know, but this is the beginning, so we should start thinking about it and have a plan for it. So that's my time. I did it on time, so I'm super happy. And I leave this open for any questions. I know that I went through very fast because I wanted to leave more space for questions because it's the best way that we can interact with this new technology and these new things. Thank you, everybody. No questions? Oh, wow. There you go. There's one question there. Yes. What kind of advice would you give somebody who is just getting out of college, who just graduated from college, who wants to get into like captioning? Industry, but understanding the power of the metaverse and how that can boost, I guess, the job market right now? So first of all, it's getting into 3D design. 3D design, it's very important right now. It's the present and it's the future of the fashion industry. I feel that all designers coming out of college today 3D must be a must for them. It doesn't matter if you're using Clo3d, if you're using Browzwear, if you're using another one, but getting the idea of designing in 3D, getting into that knowledge, that knowledge base of 3D, it's what's gonna open the doors for you more because maybe you can get into a company today, but in 5 years, that company's gonna ask you to design in 3D, so you have to grow your skills. So, for everybody coming out of college or getting into college and if they want to be a fashion designer, my main recommendation is like, be a fashion designer but learn how to do fashion digital in 3D. Yeah. They're going around. Hi, do you think there's, around personal data, do you think there's a tension in between between the early adopters of NFTs and metaverse who might be really pro-anonymity and personal data and privacy, and the early participants who are looking for really high engagement and really rich data from those people, and how do you think that tension is going to get resolved? I don't think that it was a tension. Something that bothered me when the whole metaverse discussion started is that Everybody thought that the metaverse, we're going to leave it to this small niche of people that understand what it is. So, there wasn't a lot of good information of what an NFT can do, why you have to invest in NFT. It was like a very close club of people only participating on that. So, I believe that that needs to be able to be open, that the metaverse has to be to everybody. It needs to be very accessible for everybody. One of the main triggers that happened with the metaverse is that you can only do purchase or things like that with crypto, and not everybody was very keen of using crypto. So we have to open that mentality that not everything has to go with crypto, not everything has to be so closed. It has to be for everybody. It has to be very easy to access the metaverse. I remember when we did our, first metaverse fashion show in Decentraland, I have to print out a 2-page guide to tell our team how to get into Decentraland. So, it's crazy. So, if you have to do, and then some people at some point they stop, they say like, I don't wanna open a MetaMask wallet, I don't know what's crypto, I don't wanna connect my information, I don't wanna connect that. So, I think that it needs to be able to be more open. I don't think that there's an actual tension between people that got it early. I think that like everything, if something is successful, it's gonna meant to grow and to be able to be more open. So the people that got it early, great for them. Maybe they're gonna get more value out of it, but I don't think that the reality is that they're gonna get more value if they keep it closed. They need to keep it open, and that's what we need to strive for, and that's why I'm a little bit excited about what Apple's doing. We have to figure it out if in reality that's gonna be the gate for people to create more interactions in the metaverse. All right. Yes, sir. Hey, Asik. One of the big topics that everyone talks about in the industry is interoperability, right? Yep. But on the other side, you have companies like Apple, Meta that are notorious for keeping keeping closed ecosystem. You mentioned, you addressed it to a certain degree, but as exciting as the Vision Pro is, do you feel that you would be, we might be kind of quartered into an ecosystem that's maybe not as open as others for content, for experiences and things like that? That's a great question. And I think about it as the Vision Pro being the gateway to the experiences. So like our iPhone is a gateway to different experiences that don't have to be mainly only Apple-created, it's just the gateway. I think that the Vision Pro is going to be able to generate that gateway to be able to open more information. So of course, you have to be part of the— Apple ecosystem, but it's like what happens today with the phones. You either have to have an Apple phone to get that specific app or you need to have a Google phone to get that specific app. If you don't have the hardware to be able to do that, you're not able to access it. But I do believe that as the creators are gonna start creating these apps, I believe that they're gonna open the, experiences for everybody. So I think that the experiences are going to be more open. Maybe the ecosystem of experiences maybe are going to be a little more closed because depending on the devices, but the experiences itself are going to be open. So what do I mean is that, yes, I need to have an Apple Vision Pro to be able to, to go to that experience. But that experience doesn't limit me only to one specific use case or something. That experiences can open up a whole other world for me. I have to do it in that hardware, but maybe the experience itself can be open. That's, that's what I feel that's, that's going to happen because in the past, the experiences are very keen to one specific thing. And I think that you need developers to create more experiences to be able to open up the ecosystem. And that's what I maybe feel that Apple can do because they have that big ecosystem. Let's see. Oh, microphone. Cool. Hi. Hi. Thank you. I have a kidswear question. We work in childrenswear. In Roblox, the companies that do collabs, are those actual businesses for them, or are those more of a marketing vehicle? It feels to me like it would be a really natural thing to take millions of digital assets for childrenswear and have them be fun for kids to play with and obviously use them and change them. But are those actual businesses or are those really more of just branding that are happening now? It's a two-fold. It all depends about your strategy. I can tell you my experience. On Peri Allison, and we're not doing kids for clothes, but all of our interactions that we have done and experiences that we have done in the metaverse, we have always, the digital wearables that we sell have always been free because we want people to start getting accustomed to the brand and to start understanding that the brand is there and to get that interaction with the brand. So we don't want to create any more friction of that already is. So it's already an issue for them to get into whatever metaverse is, I don't want them to then, ah, now I have to pay for to get this? No, I don't want to do that. So we try to generate something that is frictionless. There's totally economy behind it. If you saw one of our slides, there's a lot of brands making money out of these, out of the metaverse economy. But I think that if you wanna create awareness, it's a great way to be able to create awareness. And remember, making a digital asset, it's not that expensive. So it's not, you make one and you can mint 1 million. It's not that you have to actually create 1 million, you're just minting 1 million. So you can create different experiences that are brand appropriate that you can see it as a gate for them to experience the brand in a different way. And in the future, you can generate some money behind it. But it's always about creating that storytelling, it's always about generating more utility for what they're buying that digital asset for. So it's a little bit about everything, but it's all about the storytelling, what's important for the brand right now. Hope that I answered the question. Okay. That's it? All right, okay. Thank you very much, guys.