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Gaming / Fashion
Vans enters the Roblox metaverse with skateboarding experience and skins
Players can dress up their avatars in customized Vans shoes, t-shirts and accessories before hitting a specially developed skate park.
By ERIK SEDIN
17 Sep 2021

The immensely popular gaming platform Roblox, with over 42 million daily active users, has teamed up with action sports brand Vans to create the interactive ”Vans World” experience. We have seen Roblox inject real-life culture to its platform before, like the very hyped Lil Nas X concert and the Gucci Garden fashion show, but this is the first time that the California-based actions sports brand ventures into the metaverse.

The exclusive map includes a skate shop where players can purchase Vans clothing for their avatars, with a customizable function for both shoes, shirts, hats, and skateboards. Players can then proceed to shred the featured skatepark (developed by Swedish game development studio The Gang) and practice their kickflips, grinds and 360s with friends.

The Vans skateshop in Roblox.
An example of how you can style your Roblox avatar before sending it in the skatepark.

— Individual expression is deeply embedded in skate culture, and Vans has been supporting and enabling this exact type of creativity for more than 50 years. Vans is a global icon and advocate for youth culture, and we’re thrilled to bring this authentic brand experience to the millions of Vans enthusiasts where they are — on Roblox, says Vans vice president of global integrated marketing Nick Street.

With access to millions of people in the Roblox metaverse, brands can reach fans and attract new ones in immersive ways while simultaneously monetizing their brands in the metaverse. It is also a smart way to tap into youth culture, which is taking place in digital settings just as much as physicals ones.

Although, digital fashion with real-life fashion brands in skateboarding video games have been around long before Roblox existed. The EA Black Box mass hit Skate that was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation in 2007 allowed for a customizable avatar experience as well, with some of the skateboarding’s most prolific brands digitised for the in-game experience. Not monetized like the Vans and Roblox version of today, but still a clever way to reach out to a global audience.

The Create A Skater mode from the 2007 released game Skate.