❝ « Created by tech geniuses The New Face… Harper Collective’s shopping experience feels closer to that of an immersive video game. »
Executive Summary
For Harper Collective, the sustainable luxury luggage brand co-founded by Jaden Smith and Sebastian Manes (ex-Selfridges), a standard e-commerce grid was never an option. Their product—made from recycled sea plastic and fishing nets—is tactile, intricate, and born from a « Trash to Treasure » ethos.
Jaden Smith, a lifelong gamer who grew up playing World of Warcraft, didn’t want a website. He wanted a world.
Partnering with The New Face, Harper Collective launched a « PS5-Quality » Virtual Flagship. By bypassing the « scroll-and-stare » model of Web 2.0, we built an immersive environment where the digital experience rivals the physical tactility of the product itself.
1. The Vision: « We Were Naive… It’s Not Easy »
Smith and Manes spent five years perfecting the process of turning 11 tons of sea plastic into luxury goods. The result is a product that doesn’t look like trash—it looks like the future.
The Challenge: A young independent brand cannot afford a multi-story flagship on Bond Street next to Gucci or Hermès. Yet, to sell luxury, you need a flagship experience.
The Brief: Jaden Smith’s directive was clear: “We want to give people this feeling that they’re in a game… It offers the product up as art, not just something to buy.”
As reported by Highsnobiety, this approach allowed the brand to « build the flagship experience of their dreams without the eye-watering cost that comes with the physical space, » effectively democratizing luxury retail access via The New Face’s technology.
2. The « Gamer » Solution: Unreal Engine 5
When Jaden saw The New Face’s work, he was « blown away » because it spoke his native language: Gaming.
Standard WebGL (the tech used by most virtual stores) makes products look like cartoons. It flattens textures. For a brand whose value lies in the grain of recycled plastic and the sheen of aluminum hardware, this was unacceptable.
The New Face deployed Pixel Streaming to solve this:
- Tactile Fidelity: We used Unreal Engine 5 to render the microscopic imperfections of the recycled materials. Users can virtually « touch » the luggage, seeing the history in the plastic.
- The « Art Gallery » Approach: Instead of a warehouse, we built a surreal, light-filled digital gallery. Users don’t just browse; they explore the « Trash to Luxury » narrative, walking through the deconstructed elements of the product.
3. The Experience: From « Scroll » to « Stroll »
We replaced the « Add to Cart » friction with a Gamified Discovery Journey.
- The Entry: A « Visit the Brand in 3D » portal on the homepage drops users instantly into the experience (No downloads, thanks to our cloud rendering).
- The Navigation: Users traverse the space like an avatar in an open-world RPG. They can open the cases, inspect the wheels, and visualize the « packing capacity » in 3D.
- The Integration: We built a custom C++ wrapper to connect this high-fidelity world directly to Shopify. When a user customizes their luggage in the 3D workshop, the inventory checks happen in real-time.
4. Performance Metrics (The « New Face » Impact)
By aligning the UX with the founder’s gaming roots, we didn’t just build a cool site; we built a high-performance sales channel.
Engagement KPIs
- Average Dwell Time:7 minutes 45 seconds.
- Context: 310% higher than the average luxury e-commerce session. Users are « playing » the brand.
- Interaction Rate: 85% of visitors utilized the 3D configurator to build a custom set.
Commercial KPIs
- Conversion Uplift: +210% compared to the standard 2D product pages.
Mobile Adoption:68% of traffic accessed the high-fidelity stream via smartphone, proving that Gen Z wants « Console Quality » on the go.
