Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci is the latest to edge its way into Web 3 with the upcoming drop of 10 non-fungible tokens (NFT) beginning Feb. 1.
The NFTs have been created in collaboration with the cult toy brand Superplastic and co-designed by Gucci’s head of design, Alessandro Michele. Each NFT will be given away with a ceramic sculpture handmade in Italy and co-designed by Gucci. The NFT drop will be Gucci’s first.
Superplastic is a company that makes artistic vinyl toys for the collectibles market and has issued NFTs through the Winklevoss-owned Nifty Gateway. Superplastic was launched in 2018 by Kidrobot founder Paul Budnitz and has sold millions of dollars in designer toys and apparel based on characters Janky & Guggimon, Dayzee & Staxx, Kranky, ShüDog.
On Friday, Gucci tweeted about the roadmap and launch of a Discord channel as a place to encourage open conversations with the community about what’s next in the metaverse.
Digital fashion momentum
In May, designer fans were left stunned when a virtual Gucci Dionysus bag was sold on the gaming platform Roblox for 350,000 Robux, or roughly $4,115 at the time. The same physical purse cost $3,400.
Reddit co-founder and VC investor Alexis Ohanian was quick to point out in a tweet, “Remember: this Roblox purse is not an NFT and thus has no value/use/transferability outside the Roblox world – yet it’s worth more than the physical one.”
The Superplastic collaboration seems to represent a change of course.
Read more: Prada, Adidas Launch NFT Project on Polygon
Luxury fashion brands are already making millions of dollars from auctioning NFTs. In September, Dolce & Gabbana launched its NFT collection, Collezione Genesi, which fetched approximately $5.65 million in a sale.
With more fashion brands launching NFTs, many are asking if this is a transformational moment for the fashion industry or merely a bout of trendhopping.
Luxury fashion brand Prada and sportswear giant Adidas announced last week the launch of an NFT project built on the Polygon network that allows fans to contribute their own designs.
Morgan Stanley predicts the total NFT market is expected to grow to $300 billion by 2030 with brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga in the best position to profit from digital collaborations in the metaverse.
So far, the Gucci endeavor does not include an activation in popular open metaverses such as The Sandbox and Decentraland.