South Korean Fashion Platform Musina Raises $190 Million

Welcome again to Now Runway, the place we report back to you from the frontlines of the digital trend and luxurious revolution. Right this moment you discover us in Paris, the place we hosted an intimate breakfast celebrating digital trend and luxurious within the lush backyard of Lodge La Fantaisie. Having solely opened their doorways a couple of weeks in the past, we have been their first personal occasion, and lingering company skilled an insider’s tour publish breakfast.

Learn on to see what you missed exterior of Paris and within the digital house, together with a brand new sneaker launch from Puma and Roc Nation, Snapchat upgrading their digital avatars’ clothes, and Korean trend model Musinsa elevating $190 million.

Puma and Roc Nation sneaker launch

Sportswear behemoth Puma and leisure firm Roc Nation — established by iconic rapper Jay-Z as a successor to his famend hip-hop label, Roc-A-Fella Information — have collaborated on a brand new sneaker vary that pays tribute to the development of the mixtape and incorporates NFTs.

The RS-XL Mixtape sneaker collection is the brainchild of designers Alexander-John and Emory Jones. The digital element has been spearheaded by Legit, an revolutionary startup merging bodily merchandise with digital experiences via its distinctive “LGT Tag” expertise.

The vary showcases three distinct sneaker designs, every impressed by completely different phases of the mixtape’s evolution and aptly named Cassette Tape, Disc, and Playlist. Each pair of sneakers conceals a singular LGT Tag, backed by blockchain, below the left shoe’s tongue.

This NFC (near-field communication) chip may be scanned utilizing a smartphone to disclose unique digital content material. Every NFC chip can be linked to an NFT minted by Legit utilizing the Avalanche blockchain. The NFT-associated LGT Tags can validate bodily gadgets, together with footwear and different clothes.

Consumers may also acquire entry to weekly mixtape releases, a 14-track playlist that includes new music from rising Roc Nation artists, and “unrestricted behind-the-scenes entry to life as a Roc Nation artist.” The label presently represents notable artists similar to DJ Khaled, Alicia Keys, Fever 333, and Rihanna. Moreover, homeowners can have entry to a brand new documentary exploring the historical past of hip-hop. Puma famous that this launch aligns with this 12 months’s wider celebration of hip-hop’s 50-year historical past.

The Mixtape vary of sneakers is obtainable for buy on-line or in-store at Puma, Foot Locker, and Champs North American retailers, priced at $130 per pair.

In a press launch, Legit founder and CEO Calvin Chan shared, “This collaboration is the primary time in historical past that manufacturers of this caliber are leveraging next-generation expertise to do extra than simply promote a product. Collectively, we’re serving to inform a narrative, elevate creators’ voices, and have fun a motion that has captivated the world for half a century.”

Snapchat’s Bitmoji avatars

Snapchat has introduced a brand new avatar type that brings the Bitmoji to a extra immersive 3D degree, set to be launched worldwide within the upcoming weeks. This refreshed avatar type enhances options similar to hair texture, facial shading, and physique dimensions. Your Bitmoji can now exhibit a extra vibrant smile, a extra astounded expression when shocked, and convey even probably the most intricate feelings.

As well as, Snapchat is enhancing the way in which you work together along with your Bitmoji by introducing superior enhancing that permits you to regulate your avatar in a 3D house, utilizing zoom and rotation capabilities for a extra detailed view. The method of changing actual clothes into Bitmoji attire includes meticulous consideration to element, proper right down to the final sew.

With the introduction of the brand new avatar, digital clothes will seem way more lifelike, enabling you to precise your private trend sense on Snapchat as authentically as you’ll within the bodily world. Bitmoji affords a singular approach for folks to speak on-line utilizing an animated, artistic storytelling format, and the transition to 3D permits for the creation of probably the most adaptable avatar but, higher reflecting our numerous world group.

Okay-fashion platform Musina raises $190 million

South Korean on-line trend platform, Musinsa, and world funding powerhouse KKR have formally introduced a Collection C funding spherical of $190 million. Musinsa, established in 2001 as an internet sneaker group, has advanced right into a outstanding on-line trend market in South Korea, boasting over 8,000 native and overseas designer manufacturers, together with its personal in-house label (Musinsa Customary). This positions Musinsa on the coronary heart of South Korea’s creator economic system for trend. 

Over time, Musinsa has broadened its scope to include an all-encompassing ecosystem that features communities, a model incubator (Musinsa Companions), a direct-to-consumer model operator, and an offline multicultural lounge (Musinsa Terrace). The latter facilitates face-to-face interactions with prospects and affords online-centric trend manufacturers a bodily house for pop-up shops. In 2023, Musinsa earned recognition from Quick Firm as one of many “10 most revolutionary Asia Pacific firms of 2023” for its function in “globalizing Okay-fashion.”

This deal represents KKR’s inaugural expertise development funding in Korea, aligning with its Asia Subsequent Era Know-how (“NGT”) technique. This strategy goals to again the enlargement of groundbreaking, disruptive firms within the Asia Pacific area throughout key sectors similar to software program, shopper expertise, and FinTech.

Mukul Chawla, Accomplice and Head of Progress Fairness, Asia Pacific for KKR, shared in a press launch, “Musinsa has developed itself as a prime shopper Web platform in Korea and a differentiated market by its means to scale rising manufacturers, allow the creator economic system for trend, have interaction and supply a high-quality e-commerce expertise for purchasers. We see monumental alternative for MUSINSA to construct on its main place in a fast-growing Okay-fashion market that continues to shift on-line and increase globally on the again of Okay-culture’s explosive attain.”