Is digital fashion an opportunity for charities?

The fashion industry has played a significant role in the fundraising and campaigning activities of a number of charities. From Breast Cancer Now’s The Show, a fashion show featuring models living with or beyond breast cancer, to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal’s (PETA), ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’ campaign. 

The world of fashion is going digital. There are real-world pieces that can be digitally altered and as we start to imagine life in the metaverse, clothing retail for avatars is part of the vision.

In 2021, luxury fashion brand Balenciaga showcased its Autumn/Winter collection on the game, ‘Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow.’ The show takes you through the various Afterworld zones past models wearing the collection. Watching how the Afterworld and Balenciaga brands have collaborated to create an immersive experience, it’s possible to imagine how charities could do the same.

But surely this is all a bit far-fetched. We’re not likely to ditch our wardrobes for programmable items and swap the real world for the metaverse tomorrow. However, many charities are thinking actively about the monetisation of digital items like NFTs and there are already examples of charities raising funds through virtual clothing. 

Are charities already doing anything with digital fashion?

In the US, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation has followed the fashion industry’s example by partnering Blizzard, one of the major gaming developers, to develop a bespoke character ‘skin.’

In gaming, a ‘skin’ is basically a digital outfit for a character. The development of skins has been the entry point into digital fashion and it’s an industry already worth $40 billion a year.

As SOFII reports, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation worked with Blizzard to create a skin for the ‘Overwatch’ character, ‘Mercy’. The campaign, called ‘Pink Mercy’, raised $12.7 million in two weeks.

For charities where the connection with fashion has been very much around the ethics of the real-world industry, the drift to digital is an interesting prospect.

Some of the animal welfare charity PETA’s most publicly engaging campaigns work has been around the use of real fur in the fashion industry. Their ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’ campaign has been so successful that the charity recently took the decision to end it after 30 years. Reflecting on what fashion going digital might mean for future campaigning PETA Director Elisa Allen said,

“At PETA, our concern is for the animals who in real life are caged, beaten, electrocuted, and sometimes even skinned alive for fashion. However, we recognise that activism comes in many shapes and forms, and fashion designers can take a stand against animal exploitation in the metaverse just like in the real world by proudly displaying their vegan credentials and through catchy animal-friendly slogans like “Fake for Animals’ Sake.”

Creating fashion items for fundraising and campaigning purposes has simply been out of financial reach for many charities in the past. But production costs for digital fashion items are likely to be lower than the costs of creating a real-world clothing range. In the future perhaps we will see more charities adopt digital fashion as a way to get supporters quite literally wearing their values.

Should charities get into digital fashion?

Henry Rowling, Co-Founder at Flying Cars Innovation suggests three questions that charities should ask themselves before investing time and resources into digital fashion projects.

DOES YOUR CAUSE HAVE A CONNECTION WITH THE FASHION INDUSTRY?

If your cause already aligns with the fashion industry in some way like Jeans for Genes or the RED and Primark partnership, it might be worth thinking about whether digital fashion offers campaigning and fundraising opportunities for you. 

DO YOU HAVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH GAMERS OR THE GAMING INDUSTRY?

Landing a partnership with a major games developer isn’t going to just happen. At the moment, gaming companies are the gatekeepers to the more realistic possibilities around creating digital fashion for fundraising or campaigning purposes. Developing a strategy for relationship building within the industry would have to be a priority for any short or medium-term chance of success.

WHERE ARE YOUR SUPPORTERS ON THE ADOPTION CURVE?

All audiences respond differently to new developments across a curve called the adoption curve. At one end, ‘Innovators’ are always looking and listening out for anything new in their areas of interest. They want to be the first to know about and try new tech products and services.

At the other end of the curve, ‘Laggards’ are resistant to any change and try to avoid adopting new things for as long as possible. If your supporters are more likely to be in the latter half of the curve, digital fashion may not be a good fit.