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 style and luxurious revolution. As we speak you discover us in Paris, the place we hosted an intimate breakfast celebrating digital style and luxurious within the lush backyard of Hotel La Fantaisie. Having solely opened their doorways a couple of weeks in the past, we had been their first non-public occasion, and lingering visitors skilled an insider’s tour submit breakfast.

Learn on to see what you missed exterior of Paris and within the digital area, together with a brand new sneaker launch from Puma and Roc Nation, Snapchat upgrading their digital avatars’ clothes, and Korean style 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 sequence is the brainchild of designers Alexander-John and Emory Jones. The digital element has been spearheaded by Official, an progressive startup merging bodily merchandise with digital experiences by means of its distinctive “LGT Tag” expertise.

The vary showcases three distinct sneaker designs, every impressed by totally 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, beneath the left shoe’s tongue.

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

Consumers may even achieve 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 at the moment represents notable artists reminiscent of DJ Khaled, Alicia Keys, Fever 333, and Rihanna. Moreover, homeowners could 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 offered 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, Official 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 fashion that brings the Bitmoji to a extra immersive 3D degree, set to be launched worldwide within the upcoming weeks. This refreshed avatar style enhances options reminiscent of 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 best way you work together along with your Bitmoji by introducing superior enhancing that allows you to alter your avatar in a 3D area, 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 rather more lifelike, enabling you to precise your private style sense on Snapchat as authentically as you’ll within the bodily world. Bitmoji presents a singular means 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 international group.

Okay-fashion platform Musina raises $190 million

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

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 presents online-centric style manufacturers a bodily area for pop-up shops. In 2023, Musinsa earned recognition from Fast Company as one of many “10 most progressive Asia Pacific firms of 2023” for its function in “globalizing Okay-fashion.”

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

Mukul Chawla, Associate and Head of Progress Fairness, Asia Pacific for KKR, shared in a press launch, “Musinsa has developed itself as a high shopper Web platform in Korea and a differentiated market by its potential to scale rising manufacturers, allow the creator economic system for style, interact and supply a high-quality e-commerce expertise for patrons. 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 broaden globally on the again of Okay-culture’s explosive attain.”