Vanish, the garment care brand from UK-based business Reckitt, is encouraging people to re-wear their clothes with a new campaign involving well-known streamers like Shiv.
Vanish has today revealed why streamers like Shiv have recently been using only default in-game skins online, as the brand hacks the virtual ‘fast fashion’ trend to drive awareness of the real-life excessive consumption of clothing.
To raise awareness of ‘digital waste’, popular streamers ShivFPS (aka Shiv, based in the UK) and Captain Puffy (US) have been raising eyebrows among the gaming community over the last few days after they were seen committing a gaming fashion faux pas… wearing the same basic default skin for a whole week.
They also wore the same physical outfit on their streams for the duration of the #ReSkinChallenge challenge leading to some savvy-eyed fans noticing and questioning the need.
In the UK, it’s estimated that a staggering 350,000 tonnes of clothes go to landfill every year, and just like in real life, gaming skins have become a wanted accessory.
However, Vanish says that gaming skins have ‘quickly developed into a burgeoning virtual problem with real-world effects, as just like in real life ‘fast fashion’, these “skins” are at the mercy of the latest trends, with new skins (often priced between £5-50) quickly purchased and discarded to the back of the virtual wardrobe’.
Following the IRL mindset of people throwing away an estimated £140m worth of real clothes per year, the trend of switching up digital skins has increased with most swapped out weekly – sometimes daily – leading to the category apparently becoming worth £50bn, says Vanish.
“The impact of our culture of extreme disposability is
Cigdem Kurtulus, Reckittjust as prevalent in the virtual world as it is in real life – reinforcing the very behaviour that sees millions of perfectly good items of clothing thrown into landfill every year. The #ReSkinChallenge represents an innovative, playful way to land our #Rewear message.”
The campaign was first noticed by @ac1d_g4m3r on Twitch, who commented, “I think the pink T-shirt is a new sponsor”, and @Gratchinsson, who commented, “Are all your skins default now? Is that all part of some [sic] thing?”, before being echoed by @SpaxSpittinFax saying, “Shiv in [sic] default skins just looks weird”.
Shiv and Captain Puffy have today revealed they’ve been taking on the Vanish #ReSkinChallenge – a challenge whereby gamers uncharacteristically revert to a basic, default skin for a whole week to promote the real-world benefits of making clothes last longer.
UK Apex Legends streamer Shiv, who was banned on Twitch after retaliating to a hacker back in 2021, has some 1.5m followers on Twitch. And Captain Puffy has 1.6m.
Through this challenge, Vanish aims to inspire the gaming community to re-wear their clothes in real life. For every gamer who takes on the #ReSkinChallenge, Vanish will donate £20 to Oxfam.
Cigdem Kurtulus, Marketing Director Hygiene UK & Ireland at Reckitt, said: “The impact of our culture of extreme disposability is just as prevalent in the virtual world as it is in real life – reinforcing the very behaviour that sees millions of perfectly good items of clothing thrown into landfill every year. At Vanish, our mission is to help clothes live longer – and the #ReSkinChallenge represents an innovative, playful way to land our #Rewear message, credibly, with new and engaged communities.”
Visit www.vanish.co.uk/reskinchallenge for more information on how to take part.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
