American Apparel Finds the Right Fit in Second Life

Location Is Everything American Apparel's virtual private island

A retailer's first step in entering the virtual world should be to "hire popular Second Life architect Aimee Weber to design the store," Boston.com recently recommended.

Indeed, American Apparel was smart in hiring Weber, who is recognized as one of the best in creating and marketing products for San Francisco-based Linden Lab's 3-D virtual universe. Her 6,000-square-foot, two-level virtual replica of the hipster fashion destination cemented American Apparel as the first real-world retailer to open shop in Second Life.

The Los Angeles-based clothier is best known for provocative, salacious advertisements of its 1970s-era disco-trash fashion. American Apparel is proudly sweatshop-free, finding a niche among teens who are tired of designs from Abercrombie & Fitch(ANF - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and American Eagle Outfitters(AEOS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

For a business that doesn't appear intimidated by anything, the union between the real world and the so-called metaverse was a perfect fit, especially in Aimee Weber's eyes.

"People think of the two as separate worlds," notes Weber. "I think that both are becoming more closely intertwined."

American Apparel was compelled by Second Life "because it has been so successful," says Raz Schionning, Web director at the retailer. "Everything is created by the population. It's wide open, and you're only limited by your imagination and skill. The people in Second Life are the type of people we want to be talking to."

Weber began using SL in January 2004 -- "I found it originally when I had a knee injury," she explains. Her first reaction was that SL wasn't a game but instead a platform that featured plenty of user-driven content.