Zwinky, part of NY-based IAC (Nasdaq:IACI), is announcing a new partnership today with Crunchy-award winner Zazzle to allow merchandise to be printed with the avatars people create on Zwinky.

The Zazzle Kiosk makes Zwinky one of the first virtual worlds to give users the opportunity to customize and purchase merchandise for the real world. All merchandise can be created and shipped to the user within 24 hours.

This is a sound business move for Zwinky as those who embrace their avatar would be the same crowd that would wear their avatar as a tshirt or drink a beverage from their avatar mug.

Find more stories about: NYC, Quick News, Zazzle, Zwinky

Popular online shoe retailer ShoeBuy is announcing a partnership with virtual model provider Zwinky today. What this means is now you can try on shoes for your Zwinky! Zwinky is part of the IAC (Nasdaq:IACI) family.

The goal of the partnership is to help ShoeBuy sell more shoes as you can click on your virtual pair and be taken to that exact pair of real shoes to purchase. I guess this could be considered a distribution deal for ShoeBuy.

Zwinky users who purchase a pair of virtual shoes also receive a "power dance move" for their avatar. The power moves, from a simple motion to a full-out acrobatic split, can be activated when the avatar is wearing the corresponding shoes. Trust me folks, I can’t make this stuff up! I can’t picture more shoes sold because of the power moves but I’ve been wrong before.

I’ve always preferred Zappos to ShoeBuy but both have always provided me with good service.

Find more stories about: Quick News, Zwinky