Maybe you don’t have the closet space, funds or luck to build the sneaker collection of your dreams, but that won’t stop you from being able to collect sneakers virtually.
Founded in 2019, Aglet has designed a Pokémon GO-styled location-based mobile game that allows players to walk around the real world collecting virtual sneakers. On Tuesday, the LA-based company announced that it raised $4.5 million in a seed financing round. This brings the company’s total funding raised since inception to $7 million.
Aglet blurs the lines between playing a mobile game and commerce for a new kind of shopping experience. Players progress through the game and build their collection by racking up steps and visiting real-world locations. The in-game experience also mimics buying shoes IRL, with unboxings, shock drops and virtual versions of actual shoes. The game also has the added benefit of winning real sneakers through special giveaways.
The company founders created Aglet to show how gaming can be applied to commerce, and vice versa.
“Our main thesis is that gaming is eating the world,” Aglet co-founder and CEO Ryan Mullins said in a statement. “We seek to be the ‘metaverse for commerce’ where online and offline consumption experiences fuse together into something magical, fun and new. Aglet has built the platform for existing brands to plug into our experience, as well as for the next generation of creators to design virtual streetwear and brands. Our vision is to give them their own virtual retail shop in the gaming world and bring their designs into reality. ‘The street’ is now a virtual street.”
In about a year, Aglet players have collectively taken over 8.4 billion steps and earned more than 200,000 virtual shoes.
The Aglet brought together a team of gaming and sneaker industry veterans, with employees who have worked for Riot Games, Jordan Brand and Adidas. And this new funding will allow the company to expand its headcount even further. Aglet is currently hiring game designers to help expand the Aglet universe. The company hopes to grow in order to capture the attention of the larger sneakerhead community as a whole.
