Blog: H&M steps into the virtual world

Leonie Barrie | 25 July 2007

It’s nothing new for clothing retailers to tap into the virtual world in an attempt to stay in tune with their customers, and companies like American Apparel and Nike have already led the way by setting up storefronts in Second Life. However, it’s been an almost exclusively one-way street…until now, that is.

This winter, video game publisher Electronic Arts and clothing retailer H&M plan to transform the bits and bytes of the digital world into a physical product. While they're going down the more traditional route by featuring H&M fashions in recently released Sims software – they’re also holding an online contest to allow a Sims 2 player to design clothes that might be produced and sold in the real world.

Themes include "Night Out," "Let's Go to the Beach" and "Red Carpet," with winning designs being chosen in September. It looks like both H&M and EA could well have a hit on their hands. Official design kits are available on the Sims website, but the Sims 2 H&M Stuff Pack, which allows players to design an H&M store and dress their avatars in H&M clothes, has been a hit too since its US release. Designers watch out!