Space Runners has positioned itself at the leading edge of metaverse fashion, combining blockchain-powered digital assets, celebrity partnerships, and gaming interoperability to build out what it calls the first end-to-end virtual fashion ecosystem. Since its 2021 launch by co-founders Won Soh and Deniz Özgür, this Texas-based brand has raised $30 million, including a $10 million round led by Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital, to fuel its ambition of creating interoperable, gamified, and community-centric fashion for the digital world.
How Space Runners Works
Space Runners creates digital wearables as NFTs (non-fungible tokens)—sneakers, apparel, and accessories that users can showcase, trade, and use across multiple metaverses, video games, and social media platforms. Its open-source model allows artists and brands to collaborate and launch fashion drops that are fully interoperable, regardless of the underlying blockchain or gaming engine.
The company’s debut collection in December 2021—NBA Champions Sneaker Collection in partnership with Kyle Kuzma and Nick Young—sold 10,000 digital sneakers in just nine minutes, generating $8 million in revenue. Building on that success, Space Runners continues to launch signature NFT collections, each designed to function as status signals, keys to digital experiences, and tradable assets.
SPACEverse and the “Wear2Earn” Economy
Central to Space Runners’ boldest vision is SPACEverse, an immersive virtual world built to host fashion shows, events, and games. In this metaverse, users can display their NFT wearables, earn rewards for style and engagement, join digital catwalks, and unlock exclusive utilities—ushering in the first large-scale “wear2earn” economy.
As co-founder Won Soh said: “Our goal is to build the first end-to-end fashion ecosystem on the blockchain.” Co-founder Deniz Özgür adds: “In the metaverse, we see fashion as an indispensable part of digital identity, self-expression and virtual culture. Away from the limits, open to interaction and innovation, fashion will be much more important for the metaverse than it is in the physical world”.
Brand and User Benefits
- For Brands and Celebrities: Space Runners provides a collaborative hub for brands, athletes, and artists to monetize IP and launch digital-first collections that reach new global, Gen Z-heavy audiences. NBA partnerships and artist collabs have demonstrated cross-over appeal.
- For Users and Collectors: NFT wearables become both a flex and a passport—usable in gaming avatars, metaverse parties, digital meetups; traded, upgraded, or staked for additional incentives. Users join a gamified platform that encourages collecting, competing, and expressing taste in an environment untethered from physical-world constraints.
The platform’s open NFT marketplace supports trading, lending, and staking assets for DeFi rewards, while DAO governance and farming options foster community ownership and engagement.
Technology, Funding, and Expansion
Space Runners’ $30 million in backing comes from some of the world’s top blockchain investors, including Pantera, Polychain, Accel, Jump Crypto, and Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu, as well as Twitch co-founder Justin Kan. Proprietary blockchain infrastructure ensures every wearable is portable, tradeable, and ready for future gaming-engine partnerships.
The company has been named one of the world’s leading virtual fashion tech platforms by The Fashion Law and cited by academic researchers as a Web3 brand fundamentally transforming digital self-expression.
Future Outlook
With a “wear2earn” model, visionary founders, and growing partnerships across sports, entertainment, and tech, Space Runners is poised to shape what fashion means—and what fashion earns—in the metaverse. As the global metaverse fashion market heads toward $19.58 billion by 2029, Space Runners’ commitment to open, gamified, and creator-first digital wearables points to a future where virtual style, commerce, community, and play merge as never before.
