• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, January 4, 2023

H&M is the latest fashion brand to get more playful on Roblox, and it hopes its new H&M Loooptopia experience will help young gamers see it as a more sustainable brand.

The fast-fashion company has already staked out its claim in Web3.0 with metaverse-themed fashion. But Loooptopia is different, encouraging players to dive into a virtual wardrobe, experimenting with materials, patterns and styling. They can trade clothes with others, and when they're done, they can recycle old clothes, making textile circularity the real star of the show.

Linda Li, head of customer activation and marketing for H&M Americas, explains the strategy.

Retail Insider: What are you hoping to accomplish with this game?

Linda Li: We want to let customers and users experiment with their digital identity and self-expression in a fun and creative way. So the game is about fashion, being their own fashion designers, and learning about circularity and sustainability. And it’s all inspired by our real-life Looop Machine. You put garments in, and they come out recycled. It's part of our overall belief that this is the way retail should work.

Retail Insider: H&M has gotten a lot of press surrounding the Looop Machine, and the way it washes and shreds items and spits them out as yarn. Are these game players likely to be aware of it?

Li: We are targeting a digitally savvy customer. Many people are very accustomed to building their identity and fashion style. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are already immersed in the Roblox world. But we eventually hope to target people of all ages.

The game is focused on the discoverability and customization of the user's digital identity. The player is the designer. They collect items, including raw materials, and make thousands of clothing combinations. They can trade them. They can show them off down a fashion catwalk. And then they can recycle them, turning them into different elements, driving circularity.

Retail Insider: The metaverse is still pretty speculative -- what it looks like now is likely very different than what it will be in a few years. Nothing is very durable. How does that influence the way you design the experience?

Li: Above all, the metaverse is a place to connect, meet and explore. That may happen virtually, but the connections and relationships made in these environments are very real. H&M's relationship with people is long-lasting, even as these virtual and augmented words are fast-growing and fast-changing. We constantly experiment and learn how to connect with people in new and innovative ways.

Retail Insider: Are the things you learn in the metaverse likely to apply to other marketing and brand experiences?

Li: Like everything we do, we are keen to learn from user feedback. It will help us when it comes to this particular experience, but also many other elements. We're closely watching how much time people spend in the game and the number of plays. It will help us connect in new ways and use the findings to shape things going forward.