Today, The Hundreds announced the opening of an immersive 3D store within some.place, a metaverse platform that has pivoted to embrace ecommerce and provide experiential ways to take part in product falls. As the some.place private beta test comes online thisย comingย week, The Hundreds will be the 1st showcase for how the platform handles brands and communities.
Bobby โBobby Hundredsโ Kim informed Decrypt in a statement that the virtual storefront is a recreation of its real-world store in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, with the goal of supplying an interactive and social shopping experience for fans.
โWeโre building out our stores how we imagined them to be in the metaverse,โ he informed Decrypt. โThis unique digital experience is really meant for our community to come together, shop, and socialize, rather than gamification.โ
Rendered with Unreal Engine 5, the same software used by aย lotย of the video game industryโs largest developers, the some.place storefront delivers a level of detail and realism not seen in metaverseย network game experiences like Decentraland and The Sandbox.ย
Onย theย otherย hand, itโs not meant to be a purely realistic recreation, as seen with cracks in the street revealing lava beneath.
The Hundreds will use its some.place location to offer exclusive apparel falls that willย not available elsewhere, including some that will only be offered to holders of the brandโs own Adam Bomb Squad Non-Fungibleย Tokenย (NFT) collection.
Furthermore, users can earn bonus through both digital and real-world interactions, bridging the gap betwixt both ends of the brandโs presence.
Some.place was established in 2021 and is arguably best known for getting a stamp of approval from actress Brie Larson (โCaptain Marvelโ) in March 2022. Larson shared a video of her โlil cornerโ of the metaverseย network, but some fans didnโt appreciate her steps into an NFT-filled online space, prompting social media backlash.
โShe was such an incredible advocate,โ some.place co- founder Lana Hopkins informed Decrypt of Larsonโs alliance with the platform. โI think her audience was a little bit early to the Webย 3.0 journeyโbut thereโs hope, right?โ
Some.place had more of a social vibe then, but as broader metaverseย network hype has fizzled inย theย previous year, Hopkins stated that the startup has really embraced its new focus as a destination for brands to build online stores and experiences around physical and digital falls similar. Both Hopkins and co- founder Juliana Di Simone are e-commerce veterans.
โWe essentially started chatting with Bobby about lastย year about how there really wasnโt anything for brands that was beautifulโthat felt like it was elevated, from an aesthetic perspective,โ Hopkins informed Decrypt. โAnd likewise that essentially made sense for people outside of the Web3 bubble, so to speak.โ
Atย theย beginning, some.place is launching its mobile app, which has an Instagram-like social feed of immersive destinations that users can hop into. It will expand to the web asย well, and gradually open up for other brands to build on.
Generative Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) tools will be in the mix toย assist corporations spin up their own custom worlds with less of a lift, and while some.placeโs earlier NFTsโwhich unlocked personal gallery spaces like Brie Larsonโs ownโwere minted on Flow, future Non-Fungibleย Tokenย (NFTs) offered through the platform will be minted on Ethereum growing network Polygon.
Hopkins stated that she isnโt keen on the โmetaverseโ term, which has been used to represent so numerous different kinds of experiences that itโs arguably lost meaning. For her, the goal with some.place is to convey theย potential for users and communities to access immersive social opportunities and brand experiences directly from an accessible app.
โWhat we think of some.place,โ she stated, โis immersive experiences in the palm of your hand.โ
