H&M Launches Loooptopia, An Immersive Roblox Experience Where Fans Discover Their Digital Fashion Identities

With the metaverse and social gaming channels increasingly becoming more a part of our culture, H&M created an immersive experience for Roblox where fans can discover their digital fashion identities. “Obviously, we see this with the younger generation, but it’s across all ages as well,” said Linda Li, Head of Customer Activation and Marketing, H&M Americas.

“When we think about our target customer, it’s someone who is digitally savvy and someone who wants to build their own identity with fashion, whether it’s in real life or through the metaverse,” Li added. “It just made a lot of sense for us to want to be involved in the metaverse in some way. It’s very much in our interest and our DNA in the sense that we are a progressive, always learning, always curious fashion company. To be able to join a place like Roblox, which we know so many people are exploring, very much made sense for us.”

Roblox allows players to experiment with materials and patterns in a playful way by visiting various worlds such as Rainbooow Fields, Neon Studiooo, Fabric Fooorest, and Utopia City, where creating the next virtual garment and wardrobe for their avatar is easy.

Partnering with metaverse studio Dubit, H&M’s new interactive online experience also puts circular actions at the center of the fun. “The aesthetic, the fashion and the worlds are tied together in a really fun way,” Li said. “The overall idea is fashion, but there’s also discoverability, customization and sustainability, which is fantastic for us. We very much believe in it. It’s core to H&M.”

As a fast fashion brand, H&M has received its share of criticism for manufacturing huge amounts of cheap clothes. The retailer has embraced circularity in recent years with various recycling programs.

“The users run around these various worlds,” said Li. “We have one called Rainbow, one called Fabric Forest and essentially, the aesthetic is that it’s all very colorful and very engaging. Utopia City looks like a city, we have Neon Studios, which is neon, and we have Fabric Forest, which looks like a forest.

“Users can collect items like raw materials to create thousands upon thousands of clothing combinations,” Li added. “They can show them off on catwalks and mix and match styles in order to create new outfits. They can trade styles with their friends. When it comes to sustainability, not only can they trade with their friends and be able to then win a prize, there’s also a recycling option, which is at the heart of Utopia City. It rewards our players. They recycle their outfits, then collect more rare items and prizes and rewards in order to further their experience in the game.”

“The whole idea, I would say, is, the worlds are fun, they’re colorful, they’re engaging,” Li said. “All of that comes through with the experience of the game, but then how it ties into H&M is the fashion, the identities and expression, and then of course, sustainability.”

“We definitely hope that there’s greater awareness of sustainability in general and especially how fashion and sustainability are tied together,” Lid said. “Younger generations are playing these games, so the idea of exposing younger generations to sustainability, and circularity is fantastic as well.”

H&M plans to spread the word about Loooptopia. “We will obviusly be communicating out quite broadly to our existing customer base and we’re very much open to the idea that we’ll gain a lot of curious users in Roblox itself.”

The game will be updated intermittently, Li said, adding, “We don’t have an exact cadence or time frame in mind in terms of when updates will happen. We obviously want to get the feedback and input on the user experience. We should be able to change the experience and alter the experience as we go along. One thing we’re definitely thinking about is having the ability of inventing and adding to the worlds to continue to give innovative fun experiences for our customer.”

Roblox has been popular with the fashion industry. Claire’s, Gap, American Eagle, Forever 21 and Nike have all launched unique Roblox experiences. The luxury players are angling for Roblox time, too. Ralph Lauren, Givenchy and Gucci have also created experiences on Roblox.

“We’re really excited about the game,” said Li. “We’re really excited about giving our customers a new way to interact with H&M and our brand. We’re very excited about exploring new experiences our existing customers and also [new] customers. So, we’re looking forward to launching and getting the customer feedback and figuring out how to keep learning and growing in the metaverse.”