Whether it's Sydney, New York or Berlin - people love fashion. They love to dress up trying to stick out, to express themselves and to have fun. As augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) enthusiast I wanted to bring both worlds together. BrandAR, my augmented reality fashion app is a glimpse of what the future of fashion might look like! Think Snapchat filters on steroids - whoah!
How consumers can benefit from augmented reality fashion:
Self expression: Additional to physical clothes, consumers can express themselves and augment their physical appearance. Be yourself with BrandAR.
Adhering to 'boring' social norms: Social norms pressure us to wear certain attire and putting on the Spiderman costume for a regular Tuesday in the office might raise a few eyebrows - not so much if the general public doesn't even know. Fit in - differently - with BrandAR.
Making the impossible possible: Because these augmentations are virtual you can wear things that would simply not be possible in the real world, like wearing animated fairies or dragons. Possible with BrandAR.
Comparably low price point: Depending on the animation, those AR clothes like the butterfly could be quite cheap compared to actually having to tame a butterfly that accompanies you. Cheap butterflies with BrandAR!
How fashion companies can benefit from AR fashion:
Refurbish retail presence: Retail is struggling. Online shopping puts more and more downwards pressure on already low margins. Providing a great experience to customers is the holy grail of traditional brick&mortar. Now, imagine a fashion outlet full of fairies, dragons, robots and puppies - try to keep the kids out! 🙂
New revenue streams: Because these augmented clothes can be complex – like in the physical fashion industry – their price range can range from low to extremely high offering an entire new revenue stream for retailers. These kinds of augmented reality fashion apps can become a crucial part of the already massive virtual good market which creates more than $15 billion in annual revenue. If you’ve ever played Farmville or World of Warcraft you know what I'm talking about. Players pay hundreds of dollars for virtual gear such as a flashy helmet or a shiny armour in games which make them stand out in the virtual world.
First mover advantage: As always with exponential technologies, there is a good chance that the first mover advantage in the augmented fashion ecosystem can become a sustainable competitive edge as consumers are likely to be loyal to the first set of enhancements.
I'll be honest: my primitive app prototypes is a bit clunky, but the possibilities are infinite. Augmented reality in retail stores is not new. In the past we've seen smart mirrors and fitting room apps that help potential customers to try on clothes with less effort to save time. It's time to extend the new technology to clothing!
In my opinion, augmented fashion can be a fun and entertaining way to make life less serious. And after you bought all these new clothes and find them on your apartment floor: a couple of month ago I described an AR cleaning concept that will help you get things back in order.
Would you wear augmented reality fashion clothing? If so, what would you like?
Thanks Hayley, Marvi and Phil for being my AR fashion models. Thanks also to Unity, Vuforia and the 3d model designers, who all offer their creations for free to experiment!