Tommy Hilfiger Turns Getting Dressed Into a Game

For some, shopping is a game. There'southward a thrill in scoring the item you've had your center on, wearing it for the first time, and garnering compliments.

Tommy Hilfiger is now gamifying that concept. The brand has partnered with smart tag maker Awear Solutions to track wear from the Tommy Jeans Xplore collection and dole out rewards based on how oftentimes owners vesture an item. Points can be redeemed for products, gift cards, Alive Nation ConcertCash, a "Tommy Night Out" with friends that covers an Uber and dinner, and fifty-fifty invitations to Tommy Hilfiger runway shows with travel expenses included.

Tommy Jeans Xplore app When someone buys an Xplore garment or accessory, they can sign into the Tommy Jeans Xplore app via email or Facebook, pair the article of clothing via Bluetooth, and the smart tag keeps track of their movements and awards points. Bonus points tin be earned by attending designated events or visiting locations on the app'south map and participating in weekly challenges. To avoid tracking, users tin select an "anonymous mode" in the app, which deactivates the electronic tag (and stops rewards).

These are the kind of perks brands commonly give to Instagram influencers, not to loyal customers who spend money in stores, Awear founder and CEO Liron Slonimsky points out. "Right at present information technology'southward very accessible for me as a client and equally a loyal customer to go all these experiences without even posting my picture, and it makes me feel similar this relationship is really mutual," Slominsky says.

The shift from courting Instagram influencers to customers is a smart one. The days of influencers are numbered due to changes in Instagram'south API and increasing concerns about credibility. Fashion has to discover a new socially friendly style to market its wares. That'south why Awear chose the target market of xvi- to 25-year-olds for its smart tags. It's a generation that embraced Pokémon Go and prefers personalization over privacy.

The Tommy Jeans Xplore collection is conspicuously designed with that age group in listen. It'south a streetwear collection made up of T-shirts, hoodies, denim jackets, jeans, and fanny packs. Many of the items take an aqua 80s-inspired "Tommy" draped across the front. The unobtrusive smart tag is stitched in underneath a label bearing the traditional Tommy Jeans logo. The garments are automobile-washable.

It'due south easy to deride the line as a gimmick when yous don't know how much style relies on—and pays for—customer data. Technology has made a dramatic departure in the production process and marketing, simply the industry doesn't yet have dandy information about what happens after an item is purchased.

The smart tag captures a trove of data. Tommy Hilfiger can know how frequently an item is worn, for how long, and where, and even who else in the vicinity is wearing the aforementioned affair. Brands pay trend forecasters such as WGSN thousands of dollars a year for a fraction of this data.

Awear might just have created a mode trend that extends well beyond the coming seasons.