ADONIS KING & the E-commerce
This Black Owned startup is tackling the world of E-commerce
Technology rules the world because it changed the world.
Washington, DC – Oct 21 2020 –
Adonis King, a 25-year-old celebrity fashion designer who is most famous for his luxury eyewear collections, is betting on digitizing fashion and virtual reality to spice up the online shopping experience. Adonis King who started designing in 2008 has gained his name for making out- spoken eyewear for celebrities such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Alica Keys, Amber Rose, Jennifer Lopez, Shaun Ross, and many more. King has designed a red dress for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s film "Miss Bala" starring Gina Rodriguez back in 2019. In today’s world machines are already being used in all parts of the fashion industry, from farming materials to inventory management to deliveries. E-commerce has completely transformed the world of shopping; brick and mortar stores have reacted by becoming destinations for experiences. Shopify has predicted that experiential e-commerce is going to be one of the factors that drive fashion e-commerce growth over the next four years. Fashion designers, too, have been experimenting with new formats, including going straight to digital. “Since the birth of social media and the boom of fashion influencers, the production of clothing has grown 60 percent, generating a tremendous impact on the ecosystem,” The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world and in 2020 COVID-19 has force fashion designers to make a change. Digital clothing can become an effective sustainable alternative for fashion influencers in particular when smartphone cameras will be able “to dress them up in real time without a manual gesture as it happens now. CLO 3D, which is 3D fashion design software that lets fashion designers create virtual true-to life garments without a physical sewing machine or having to buy fabric. This plays an important part in the fashion industry, as so many designers are going waist free. So how do you stand out of the crowd? Adonis King and his team of tech developers created the world first self-serve virtual store/showroom building platform called "Virtual X Pro". Virtual X Pro allows users to build there own virtual store without having coding experience, easy click and drag features that allows users to have full customization. These features will help speed up users development and stay ahead of the competition. Virtual X Pro let users choose from over 100 per-made templates and 3D assets to import into a virtual store. “We also have a 2D to 3D tool that allow users to take 5 photos of their products and the tool converts the photos to 3D”. If users are more advanced they have a option to partner there favorite 3d software to the Virtual X Pro platform such as unity, blender, MAYA, and unreal engine. The virtual store and showrooms can be access through one click of a link and they are fully shoppable. Customers will also be able to immerse themselves into users virtual stores using the VR feature. This feature lets customers shop in VR or shop on there phone, and web browser without downloading any special plugin or software.
Some might say this is the future of retail. King has recently opened up about being mentored by the Godfather of e-commerce him-self Federico Marchetti who is the CEO of Yoox, Net a Porter and recently named chairman of Giorgio Armani.
Below is the interview we had with Adonis King about the new Virtual X Pro platform.
Adonis King, welcome back to The Style Researcher Magazine, how do you handle diversity with Virtual X?
AK: My pleasure to be here again, Ray. We handle diversity very well at Virtual X. My team is well diverse and we work amazing together. We all are very tech savvy and that makes it a lot easier for us to get along. When someone isn’t strong in an area we pear him or her up with someone and they learn from that person. Everyone has something special about them to offer, and I believe you should never discount someone because of their race or beliefs. Of course not everyone gets along but its all about finding that middle ground with them and learn why they see the world that way. We can't be afraid to ask the hard questions because the hard questions are what make everyone understand something even more. I think with everything that is happening in the world today, people should be open to learn from each other weather its from a different race, belief or financial background. Life is a classroom and we are the students.
What made you want to start your own fashion tech company?
AK: I have always been involved with tech some how through out my life. I started early on when I was in middle school coding websites and designing custom MySpace pages for music artist. I self taught myself to learn HTML and CSS. Of course tech is larger than life now and so much has changed. I am constantly learning something new everyday, and its still super exciting to me, to see all of the new programs and software that people create just sitting at home. I always knew at some point that tech would take over the world and it would make handling task easier for people. I guess the question I had was when? In the fashion industry today we rely so much on technology, it makes creating a pair of shoes ten times easier or being able to create one custom shirt opposed to one hundred. The fashion designer today wants to leave as little to no carbon imprint on the world as possible. Sustainability has been something the fashion industry struggled with in the pass and I think designers are looking at new ways to create less to no waste and still focus on branding their company. So we created a platform called Virtual X Pro that is fully self- serve virtual e-commerce platform that shave hundreds of hours off someone work load to create a better customer experience. Today fashion designers are able to design digital products through software’s like CLO 3D and this is just a add on to that, for creators to be able to display and sell their creations. They also can turn there physical products into digital products, but they know how much of the product to make and what is selling the best without having to waste fabric, time, and money. With the Virtual X Pro platform designers can design their dream stores without having to worry about overhead, rent, or the responsibility that comes with a brick and mortar.
How is creating tech different from creating fashion?
AK: They both are fast pace industries, but I feel tech moves faster than fashion because its changing every minute, every second and if you don't keep up with the change you can get left behind. Both industries you still have to brainstorm and make hard decisions look easy. Fashion you definitely have more seasonal trends that you can kind of rely on, but with tech you are really creating something fully new that hasn't been done before. You get a quick response out of people if they like a new update or if they hate it, you will know for-sure because everyone is talking about it. The biggest difference is that there is no physical product like clothes, with tech the software is the product that lives in the cloud but you can't touch it like you can with clothing. It's all data and servers.
How is it to be mentored by the Godfather of e-commerce him-self Federico Marchetti?
AK: I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be mentored by Mr. Marchetti. Mr. Marchetti is someone I have looked up to for a long time and how he started his company Yoox that is one of the first companies to bring and sell luxury fashion designers online such as Giorgio Armani. I have learned a lot from him and his team about the world of e-commerce and what the future holds for the world of fashion. Meeting him goes down as one of the best moments in my life.
Are you quilting your fashion label Adonis King Collection?
AK: No I am not quitting the Adonis King Collection brand. I have built that fashion label for years and I definitely see Virtual X working together with the Adonis King Collection brand in the future. I have recently a pointed my sister Niya as the current creator director of the label and I believe she has a lot to offer the fashion industry. She has been by my side working hard with me on the Adonis King Collection brand since the start of it, so she knows the brand best like I do. I am excited to see where she takes the brand and I know she's going to do amazing. The world has already seen some of her work during the New York Fashion Week Billboard campaign we launched in FW19.
Where do you see Virtual X five years from now?
AK: The Virtual X Pro platform is already growing at a fast rate. I see the Virtual X team adding more features along the way creating opportunities for new and old businesses to reach new customers worldwide through their virtual store or showroom. We want users to be able to monetize their virtual store or showroom like YouTube. The platform isn't just for fashion but for any kind of business weather your selling cars, music, cosmetics, and much more.
Adonis interviewed by Raimondo Rossi, aka Ray Morrison
Contact: Chan
Company: Virtual X
Phone: (571) 316-5001
Email: virtualxpromarketing@gmail.com Web: VirtualXPro.com
IG: @VirtualXPro
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