The virtual world has always transported us to other universes for quests and adventures, sporting events and death matches, which we trudged along in an endless, often solitary effort that spanned days, sometimes months, of battle and effort. We did our trading and buying by way of apples and odd little ‘other world’ gadgets, picked up along the way as we leapt over angry turtles, giant mushrooms and crept along deep, dark crevices.

Enter American Apparel’s newest “online store” – tucked in the 3-D, virtual reality of Second Life (www.secondlife.com), a unique site that is part social networking community, part parallel world (complete with a fully integrated economy with thousands of dollars traded in goods and services). This isn’t your Super Mario Brothers. You won’t be pixilated like the good old days – in fact, you’re not even some random icon but a customized figure that you create, right down to the way you wear your hair and the clothes you’ve got on your body.

Which, I guess you could say, is where American Apparel comes in. The big hearted giant (AA supports social change and sustainability, a.k.a – the ‘green movement’, which has been in nearly every major magazine since the start of May) has joined the ranks of early innovators like the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) in setting up shop a new way: via the faux, 3-dimensional online communities that have quietly crept into the Internet marketplace (a bit lost among the almost deafening noise of Rupert Murdoch’s ongoing MySpace media blitz). The BBC held a concert where 6,000 virtual fans jammed, while American Apparel opened shop, dressing the masses in its famous t-shirts and casual wear.

“It’s an interesting test to branch out into new ways of communicating with our customers,” said Raz Schionning, of American Apparel, who spearheaded the company’s Second Life initiative. “We’ve had a phenomenal response – over 3,000 garments sold.”

With Second Life’s population at roughly 332,000, that means a good percentage of people living in the world are now sporting American Apparel’s wares. The virtual store was based loosely on one of AA’s existing stores in Tokyo, reproduced by Aimee Weber, a well known and highly respected designer in the Second Life world. The clothes are nearly exact replicas of what’s sold in AA’s real-world stores in both fit and color. The clothes sell for about $1 with soon-to-come offline discounts that can be cashed in for real-world AA gear.

The move created a splash in the media and business, both of which have been struggling to find the right formula for reaching consumers in the wake of disruptive technologies like TiVo, the Internet, etc. Both AA and the BBC Second Life campaigns were noted in Business Week and countless other magazines, breaking ground for the next generation of society’s Online and offline experience.

“We’re having a grand opening for the store on July 28,” adds Schionning. The company will unveil 10 new styles, some of which will be Second Life exclusive, as well as the new line of denim trousers that will be unveiled in the virtual world, a month before they’re revealed to the public at-large.

American Apparel’s Second Life store can be found at www.SecondLife.com. Registration is required to enter the Second Life world.