While at Ralph Lauren, Delahunt led a project to wear Bitmoji with Ralph Lauren digital in August 2020, becoming the first luxury brand to partner with the Snap-owned avatar company. Since then, the avatar landscape has become a key arena for tech companies to take advantage of the fashion industry and its role in shaping online identities: 85% of the US Gen Z population of Ages 13-24 have a Bitmoji avatar; Meta and Apple now offer detailed avatar customization; and startups, including Ready Player Me and Genies, are competing for brand partnerships and institutional funding.

During Delahunt’s tenure, Ralph Lauren also partnered with South Korean metaverse platform Zepeto and Roblox, where a temporary vacation experience in late 2021 offered players the chance to dress up in vintage Ralph Lauren pieces, effectively educated Generation Z about the brand’s legacy while also giving access to hard-to-find physical parts.

Since then, interest in digital fashion has proliferated, and an underlying blockchain layer has become increasingly relevant in terms of talent ownership, revenue, and democratization. Delahunt calls it a turning point, with changes to blockchain, AR, VR, and consumer-friendly design tools leading to a renaissance. “We’re going to see this wild intersection of creativity and technology that will actually alter design in the way that we’ve seen content disrupted for the last 10 years,” he says. “I think there will be the next versions of Netflix and TikTok and all the major platforms that we don’t know about yet. We must also remember MySpace, which in 2003 was one of the most visited platforms in the United States and fell as fast as it rose.

Delahunt also says that physical pieces are a planned component of Syky’s business model, noting the expansion of AR used to add a digital layer in retail and with products. Traditional brands, such as Nike, Prada and Puma, as well as digital early players, such as RTFKT and 9dcc, have leaned heavily in this direction through digital-phygital products linked via NFTs. After all, there is still a need to express our identities in all walks of life. The new Rtkft-Nike co-branded hoodie, for example, gives wearers AR wings.

The space is still nascent, and in the meantime, he says, more bridges are needed between traditional fashion, new talent and technology. “I just feel like the time is now. We’re in the middle of the story, and it’s great to be able to do something in this space.”

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