Gentle Monster summons the flames of hell for its first collaboration with Tekken 8. The frame’s spiky design is a perfect match for Kazuya, one of the video game franchise’s most famous antagonists. The release is accompanied by a major marketing campaign, including the use of artificial intelligence.
“The line blurs between reality and the world of TEKKEN 8….”
Gentle Monster has chosen to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tekken, one of the world’s most famous fighting video game franchises… along with Street Fighter, Virtua Fighters, Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur.
The South Korean luxury eyewear brand, known for its daring designs and conceptual boutiques, has created a pair of glasses inspired by one of gamers’ most famous characters: the demon Kazuya Mishima.
Gentle Monster’s launch campaign is equally unconventional , fusing digital devices with in-store experiences, all with exemplary coherence, as the two brands are ultimately closer than one might have imagined.
Ready? Fight!
After teaming up this year with Mugler, then Jenne and Maison Margiela, Gentle Monster now calls on a video game monster, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment.
But the king of conceptual eyewear is calling on the famous Japanese company to capitalize on the release of the eighth opus in the Tekken saga, out at the end of January on Playstation 5, Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series.
The collaboration is based on the launch of a single product: the INFERNO frame. The result is a silver goggle frame with a tormented, hellish design inspired by Kazuya Mishima.
The saga’s iconic villain has been possessed by a demon since childhood, following an accident caused by his own father. Caught up in a succession struggle, Kazuya Mishima faces off against his father, Heihachi Mishima, head of the family business for 40 years, Mishima Zaibatsu, organizer of the King of Iron Fist Tournament, which serves as the game’s backdrop. The idea is that the winner of the championship takes the family empire and the fortune that goes with it.
Far from being a mere financial conglomerate, Mishima Zaibatsu boasts a private army (Tekken Force), a school and a biotechnology center.
The frame features numerous details reminiscent of the demon’s horns, as well as its red color, which can be seen in the finish of the lenses and the packaging, which echoes the look of his gloves, also red.
Launched on September 27, the model sold out at lightning speed just two days after its launch, despite its premium unit price of $500.
Operation 360° seduction
Gentle Monster’s boldness isn’t limited to its eyewear design: its communications operation is just as impressive.
The campaign builds on the brand’s strengths in product innovation and customer experience. The South Korean brand has developed a filter using artificial intelligence, enabling users to change into a character, in a posture and staging that are just as epic, as if they were preparing to face the game’s real characters.
The Tekken 8 game itself features an in-game skin in Gentle Monster colors that can be donned by players, and is likely to see a tenfold increase in scope through the massively multiplayer mode.
Finally, as an Asian company, Gentle Monster has not forgotten the importance of offering hybrid experiences – that is, on the borderline between the digital and the physical – or at least without abandoning the physical.
Pop-up spaces have been set up in the eyewear brand’s boutiques in Shanghai, Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo. The décor, which resembles a Zen dojo-style fighting arena, features giant statues of the villain Kazuya, as well as other Tekken characters.
A meaningful videogame collaboration
An exemplary case of c rossover marketing between fashion and pop culture, the alliance with Tekken enabled Gentle Monster to beef up its storytelling.
Indeed, from its launch in 1994 in arcades and on Playstation the following year – in response to Sega’s release of Virtua Fighter – Tekken set itself apart from other videogame fighting games.
Featuring a vast gallery of singular characters (from eight in the original arcade version to the initial 32 in the 8th installment), the video game franchise offers a narrative of rare complexity.
Indeed, each of the characters not only has his or her own aesthetic and style of dress, but also his or her own history, nationality and martial art, a revolution for the time… since taken up by franchises such as Soul Calibur.
Finally, the brand founded by Hankook Kim in 2011 can also hope to expand its audience by capitalizing on communities of gamer fans of the game and introducing them to fashion. This is a target that has historically been difficult for luxury brands to reach, but which has been making great inroads in recent years.
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Read also > Gentle Monster opens its first physical store in Thailand
Featured Photo: © Gentle Monster x Tekken 8
