Beyond the bubble: Making NFTs work for fashion.
Is the NFT gold rush over already or is it just beginning?
While the days of easy money are over, fashion brands can still make a splash in the NFT world.
May 10, 2021.
The NFT fashion gold rush earlier this year yielded some mind-boggling payouts for early adopters: virtual fashion brand Rtfkt sold a digital jacket for over $125,000, and of course, there was the famous $69 million Beeple digital art sale.
Now, the smoke is beginning to clear on the initial hype cycle as NFT price tags level out, and invest in nft fashion brands are having a harder time making a big splash on existing NFT exchanges. Any brand or person can “mint” an NFT, which has led to a flood of NFTs for sale, and often brands lack familiarity with the crypto audience that form the core base of NFT buyers, experts say. And NFT sellers often don’t understand just how small the NFT buyer base is: blockchain analytics company Covalent found that fewer than 2,000 buyers accounted for 80 per cent of total purchase volume on Rarible, the second-largest NFT exchange. Even widely known celebrities are struggling to sell NFTs: only one of supermodel Kate Moss’s NFTs has sold, while another remains unbid on.
Still, fashion brands that build something specific and accessible to their fan bases can find breakout success. Crypto-native fashion brands are leading the way, while NBA Top Shot, an e-commerce site for buying and trading video clip NFTs of basketball players’ best moments, can provide a go-to-market blueprint for fashion brands who don’t have an existing foothold in the crypto world.
“NFTs are all about collectibles, and so is the fashion world,” says Benoit Pagotto, founder of RTFKT (pronounced “artefact”). “Fashion brands just need to look and see where their fans have a collector’s mindset already, and they can leverage NFTs to unlock new ways of creating products and generating revenue.” That doesn’t mean there needs to be a mad dash to minting NFTS, he adds. “Brands shouldn’t create NFTs because they have FOMO or want to be in the press. They need to consider their long-term vision and build towards the future.”
What fashion can learn from crypto-native fashion brands.
Many of the NFT fashion “drops” that have done well are from digitally native fashion houses that don’t have physical storefronts or household name recognition. But their products resonate with the tight-knit crypto community, who chat about them in Clubhouse rooms or on Discord.
Most well-known may be Rtfkt, who recently announced an $8 million seed round from notable VCs including Andreessen Horowitz and C Ventures. They have sold $4.5 million of digital goods this year already. The company’s signature items are colourful, digital sneakers that pay homage to gaming culture, which are referred to as simply “sneakers”. On the other hand, “wearable NFTs” refers to a real-life sneaker, and on some limited-edition auctions, If you adored this article and you would certainly like to receive more facts regarding interest NFT projects kindly go to our webpage. buyers can claim a “wearable NFT” modelled after the digital shoe.
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A shoe collaboration between NZXT and RTFKT.
Founder Benoit Pagotto, interest NFT projects who worked in luxury fashion before founding RTFKT, attributes their success to paying zealous attention to the digital-first world of teenagers. A group of 150 teenagers forms RTKFT’s unofficial focus group and future intern pool.
“I’m not afraid of brands, but I am afraid of the 16-year-olds grinding on Blender [a 3D modelling software] in their bedrooms,” says Pagotto.
Another NFT fashion brand success, Overpriced.™, was able to sell an NFT hoodie for $26,000 through connecting with the meme-centric, self-referential nature of crypto culture. Founded by Grammy-nominated Leighton James of Adventure Club and creative agency Impossible Brief, the first collection consists of 25 black hoodies featuring large QR codes and their slogan, “Fuck you(r) money”, in neon graffiti. The slogan is a blunt comment on how fashion is about showing off how much money you have, while also acknowledging that their hoodies are indeed overpriced, the Overpriced.™ founders say.
Overpriced.TM was able to sell an NFT hoodie for $26,000.
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Like RTFKT, the Overpriced.™ considers itself an NFT-first and physical-goods-second brand. Owning the NFT grants unlimited physical replacement hoodies, which the founders say solves a key issue with luxury fashion today: buyers want to show off their purchase, but they don’t want it to get damaged, so they refrain from wearing it. “With our hoodie, you don’t feel like you have to keep it in a box and not wear it,” says James.
DressX, a digital fashion store, is betting that they can make luxury buyers covet fashion NFTs. On DressX, customers buy a fashion piece and crypto wallet may make money also submit a photo of themselves, and in return receive a digital photo back of them wearing the fashion item. The founders explain that because oftentimes the goal of fashion is to post a photo to social media, their product gets users quickly to the end goal, all without having ever actually purchased a physical fashion item.
DressX sees NFTs as a natural extension of what they’re already doing, because NFTs allow them to layer the collectibility mindset into their fashion pieces. The founders say they’re in the process of integrating with the big NFT exchanges, as well as launching their own fashion-specific NFT marketplace. “I don’t think digital fashion will replace physical fashion, but I think it will be an integral extension of the industry moving forward,” says Krista Gambrel, a DressX customer who recently purchased a matching NFT crop top and skirt set. “Platforms like DressX offer a pathway towards solving some of the sustainability problems of our past while opening up fascinating forms of self-expression, creativity and business opportunity.”
The sports playbook.
Five months after launch, NBA Top Shot has 964,000 registered users and made $609 million in sales from over 4.5 million transactions. Its popularity isn’t contained to the crypto community: crypto wallet may make money 80 per cent of transactions on Top Shot are purchased using a credit card, says Caty Tedman, head of partnerships at Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot.
Vogue Business recently tried to purchase a “pack” of NBA Top Shots, joining the digital queue 2 minutes after the pack “dropped”.
Vogue Business was customer 257,154 in line, proof that even in the abundant digital world, the psychology of scarcity that drives collecting mania over Beanie Babies or Birkin bags is alive and well.
