Last Saturday morning, 1,000 frenzied customers rushed to form a line outside a middle school in East Harlem, some tossing aside rented Citi Bikes with the fare meters still running to get a ticket to enter a classroom that had been taken over by UK streetwear label Corteiz.

They were there for the brand‘s latest collaboration with Nike, anchored by a pair of yellow and black Air Max 95s — the “Honey Blacks” — that would exclusively be sold in-person at one-day pop-ups in London and New York City. Corteiz only revealed the New York pop-up’s location that morning through clues on its social media accounts, first sending people to a group of school buses parked on the west side of Harlem where 250 numbered tickets for the first spots on line were distributed. An hour later, it unveiled the actual location of the pop-up — three miles away — where the last 750 tickets could be claimed.

“This is really how it should be. It’s supposed to be fun,” said Dali J., a 40-year-old sneaker collector who woke up at 6 a.m. to drive to Harlem from her home in Connecticut nearly 85 miles away. “That experience is what they want to bring back.”

Gamified shopping experiences have been embedded within consumer culture since Willy Wonka’s “golden ticket” and cereal box sweepstakes, but these tactics are getting fresh updates and resonating with young fashion consumers who are seeking deeper connections with brands beyond just clicking check-out or walking to the register. James Davis, a former strategy director for Highsnobiety who addresses the crossover between fashion and gaming with his consultancy Drawn Distant, believes the rise of gamified drops is also part of a larger ripple effect created by the pandemic-era gaming boom. Outside of fashion, gaming’s permeation of pop culture has led to the meteoric rise of Twitch streamers like Kai Cenat and new modern slang terms such as “NPC” or “side quest.”

While streetwear and sneaker labels are among those at the forefront of adopting gamification, they’re joined by a number of other brands, including beauty companies like Glossier and Topicals, which have been running a series of events it calls “Faded Fortune” across the US and UK in which participants can win prizes. They illustrate another benefit of gamification: It makes for great online content.

“We live in a social world and people love being able to share what they’re doing,” said Topicals’ head of brand Abiola Babarinde. “So how can we give you an experience that you wouldn‘t have experienced elsewhere and do things that feel a bit outlandish and stand out?”

Game On

The desire for gamified drops is particularly strong among streetwear and sneaker customers raised off the lore of hyped in-person releases such as camp-outs in front of Supreme stores or the famed 2005 release of Jeff Staple’s “Pigeon” Nike SB Dunk, which caused enough of a commotion that police had to be called out. Many of them, however, have grown tired of the standard drop model.

“The customer just got bored and exhausted,” said Jessica Ramírez, co-founder of retail advisory firm The Consumer Collective. “Gamification taps into how consumers perceive the brand and why it’s so memorable to them, and that’s actually a bit stickier than these regular drops that we’ve seen for so long.”

Nike has been reorienting its drop model around gamification as it seeks to rebuild lost brand heat. Last week, it introduced “SNKRS Link,” a new online release model that only lets customers access certain Nike releases through a unique link that could be shared through unique access points such as a Nike collaborator‘s social media page or a QR code posted at a pop-up. In February, a Tomb Raider-inspired Air Max 1 sneaker release tied to Nike’s web3 project, .Swoosh, asked customers to complete a set of word puzzles to gain access to the drop.

Other sneakers brands have followed in Nike’s footsteps. In January, New Balance released a collaboration with sneaker customiser Lorenz.OG that asked customers on release day to head to an abruptly announced location where, in true Wonka fashion, a golden ticket inside a chocolate bar would grant them access to the release. In March, Puma stashed 40 tokens throughout London for customers to find and exchange for items from its ongoing collaboration with UK rapper Skepta. And in April, Kith set up a soccer-themed activation in New York City’s Grand Central station to promote its Adidas collaboration that invited the public to successfully score on a real goalie and win a pair of sneakers.

The current king of gamified drops, however, may be Corteiz’s founder, who goes by Clint 419. Like its in-person releases, Corteiz also pushes followers to engage with the brand on socials to gain access to a password that unlocks drops online or win a reward given directly by the founder himself. Davis of the gaming consultancy Drawn Distant sees him as a hyper-engaged creator who resonates with Gen-Z and Alpha customers that also grew up on creator-driven entertainment by the likes of gaming YouTubers such as MrBeast.

“Games are very much embedded in and leading culture in many ways for these younger kids,” said Davis. “It doesn‘t matter if the product’s the best thing ever. You need to be entertained while you try to hunt it down, hence the ‘side quest’ phenomenon, because it’s a game as much as it’s a reward.”

Stephanie Ramos, a marketing consultant who previously worked within Nike’s energy and collaborations team on gamified releases with brands such as Corteiz, said drops today need to also offer “cultural currency” by becoming shareable experiences on social media, a phenomenon gamified releases speak to. Topicals’ “Faded Fortune” events invite customers to an activation where they pick suitcases off a stage, like the game show “Deal or No Deal,” with prizes that range from an all-inclusive brand trip to a vintage Louis Vuitton bag.

More Than Just Fun and Games

Content opportunities aren‘t all customers are seeking, according to Ramos.

“The consumer is really looking for experiences, memories and community, especially post-pandemic,” she said.

Gamified drops create a reciprocal relationship with customers that engenders community by creating spaces for fans of the brand to interact with one another. Because gamified releases require customers to be more engaged, it also keeps hardcore fans of these labels locked in while turning off outsiders, creating an air of exclusivity.

It’s another reason gamification has resonated particularly well with sneakerheads and streetwear consumers. Alex Ropes, CEO of UK streetwear community The Basement, believes that the rise of social media has not only decentralised streetwear from epicentres like New York but fuelled a new crop of streetwear brands globally that has committed to the same gamified release strategy as brands such as Corteiz because of the barrier to entry it creates.

“The ones that are dedicated to your brand are the ones that are willing to go a little bit over and above to buy it,” said Ropes. “The result of that is people will associate themselves with your brand at a closer level and it will create that kind of cultural camaraderie around two people that wear the same brand, which is what streetwear is all about.”

That camaraderie is more the point than keeping others out. Ramos believes consumers are valuing authenticity more than exclusivity these days, a view echoed by Fabio Dessena, better known as FD From The Future, a UK-based content creator who built a following for on-the-ground coverage of gamified streetwear and sneaker drops. While Dessena has witnessed both new streetwear brands and larger players explore gamified releases, he believes the ones that build true communities are tied to something authentic rather than hype.

Resonance with a brand or founder‘s story is why Isaiah Santana, a 24-year-old Parson‘s School of Design student, was in line for Corteiz’s drop in Harlem, his first-ever in-person sneaker release.

“There’s a personality behind it and a connection,” he said.

For 22-year-old Max Daniel Pastrana, meanwhile, having to do work to get the Honey Blacks was part of the appeal.

“It gives the shoes more importance,” he said.