Dressing our 3D avatars better than we dress ourselves

Looking forward to Target selling a $9.99 NFT shirt for my Insta avatar

Feb 4

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This week Meta announced expanded features for its 3D avatars across its Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and VR platforms. This is a big deal because we’re increasingly showing up in virtual spaces and how we show up matters. But how you show up in these social networks and metaverse worlds is a factor of customization and a balance between how you actually look vs how you want to look. It’s human nature. And Meta has a huge footprint and stake at popularizing this emerging behavior and the technology behind it.

From a human avatar digital twin perspective, the results of Meta’s new 3D avatars tools today aren’t entirely uncanny valley… but they aren’t super spot-on…

Regardless of the likeness quality today, just like all other avatar tools, those customizations and realism will only increase. This is just a step toward more fully representing yourself in online worlds than the final end state. It will get better! And they won’t all be human likeness clones. Many of us will choose alternate avatar identities or change them over time with entirely new body shapes, animals, digital clothes, and more. That’s already mainstreamed in gaming communities and social profile pictures. But avatars are accellerating out of gaming very quickly.

Today at 4 p.m. Jennifer Lopez and Latin trap king Maluma will perform as avatars of their movie characters within Snapchat and encouraged users to “have their concert outfits ready.” RSVP here.

A crowd of Bitmoji avatars on the red carpet outside of a theater with a marquee that reads 'Marry Me: Kat & Bastian Live In Concert'

Sure you can wear a Ralph Lauren outfit in Roblox, Levi’s in Bitmoji, or an officially licensed Super Bowl shirt in Facebook, but the the rise of metaverse fashion could feasibly eclipse actual fashion sales in the coming era. Morgan Stanley is projecting that the metaverse could present a $50 billion-plus opportunity for the luxury industry in the next decade thanks to the growing market for digital goods. If you have a young person in your life, the odds that they’ve asked to spend Roblox Robux, Minecraft Minecoins, or Fortnite V-Bucks on digital avatar swag and items is incredibly high. Maybe they’ve event spent more on virtual goods than they’ve spent on IRL clothes. Ask them.

Greg Swan @gregswan

Testing out the @RalphLauren Winter Escape experience in @Roblox. I got my avatar hooked up with some Polo threads, went ice skating, decorated a tree, and am currently on a treasure hunt. Also sat in a chair and chatted with my daughter, as you do in the metaverse.

And that trend is coming for adults and the NFT world, too. Decentraland — the metaverse world where you probably don’t want to look like yourself — will be hosting its first Metaverse Fashion Week starting March 24, with showrooms, stores, talks and events during the four-day virtual event.

Virtual avatars will be walking the runways, some of which will be shoppable and wearable, meaning people can wear the digital items in Decentraland, and some collections will have a physical twin. For example, a person visiting MVFW might buy a digital item via an NFT and wear it instantly on their avatar; they can choose to sell that item or keep it and redeem the NFT to also receive the brand’s physical complement. (Not all brands will have a physical component.) While visiting a virtual store, they might scan a QR code to see a realistic-looking 3D render of the item pop up in their physical space at home, via a smartphone camera.

Meanwhile, Meta is pushing this 3D avatar adoption through its product set, which is a social signal worth tracking toward small-step adoption. Oculus of course already had “standard” 3D avatars through Meta Horizon, but Zuckerberg has signaled that Meta will soon support NFT-based assets (digital furniture, decorations, clothes) that will be portable or allow for portability from other places. I’m skeptical Meta will truly build an open system, but time will tell how that works.

I also have to say I’m a big fan of Horizon Workrooms and the ability to interact with a team of people via semi-realistic avatars in a metaverse workspace. Even if the avatars aren’t spot-on and the technology is a little clumsy, the spirit of “presence” is powerful, undeniable, and exciting. It can truly feel like you’re “there” with your coworkers. And these are the small steps that lead to big ones in the metaverse future. It’s uncanny.