Quiksilver avatar styles available on Xbox 360 Avatar Marketplace

For several years now the percolating world of second world or avatar fashion has been all the rage, especially in video gaming-centric circles and places like Japan and China (as we’ve written about before). So it’s interesting that now Quiksilver and Roxy have entered into the realm via a partnership with Xbox Live on Xbox 360.

Actually, the more interesting story is that Xbox Live has a growing Avatar Marketplace from which to buy virtual online apparel and accessories. While various gaming circles, especially MMRPG players, have been spending money in the virtual world for some time now, buying points, “gold”, “weapons” via EBay, the Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace could turn into a virtual shopping mall that more than surf-inspired brands jump into.

Not the first to enter such a market, RockBand 2 offers avatar band merch opportunities, and H&M back in the day worked with EA on Second Life to create entire fashion shows and seasonal designs which came to life from a select group of winners which was all around avatar designs. But this is interesting because Xbox is realizing that this truly has some legs in terms of new market opportunities and collaborations.

According to Craig Davison, Senior Director of Xbox Live Marketing, “There are 20 million people interacting and enjoying social entertainment on Xbox LIVE. Personalizing the Xbox LIVE experience and keeping it current and authentic is important to us, so when we had the opportunity to work with two progressive, stylish and popular brands like Quiksilver and Roxy, we knew they’d be welcome additions to Avatar Marketplace.”

Quiksilver and Roxy products are available today, at the time of this writing, August 11, 2009, using Microsoft Points. (This should provide an excellent new opportunity for a new EBay subculture.)