Posted on Feb 3, 2022

In recent years, the fashion industry has shown tremendous effort to digitally transform and adapt fashion in the digital era. Brands are using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology to attract, verify and connect with consumers from all over the world. Let’s see which fashion brands are integrating NFTs into their product portfolios!

1. RTFKT – luxury fashion brand with virtual sneaker drops

The RTFKT brand was established in 2019 and became a specialist in selling virtual sneakers. Early in 2021, the business had a collaboration project with “Fewocious”, a popular crypto artist who was only 18 years old at the time.

He designed 3 virtual sneakers where bidders could “try on” the sneakers through Snapchat and then enter an auction to purchase after.

The highest bidder also had the chance to obtain the physical pair of sneakers to wear in real life. The collaboration lived up to the hype with 600 pairs of sneakers being sold in under 7 mins. reaching revenue of 3.1 million USD.

Since then, RTKFT has made developments to their lineup by partnering with “The Fabricant” to create a new collection of 7 virtual items receiving 8 million USD in their latest round of fundraising.

2. Gucci – The first major luxury fashion house selling NFTs

Gucci became the first luxury brand to delve into the forays of NFTs.

The iconic Italian fashion house’s NFT was not styled after fashion goods but rather a film inspired by their “Aria” collection in collaboration with Alessandro Michele. This 4-minute film was sold at Christie’s auction for 25,000 million USD.

3. NFT enters fashion week!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fashion week changed to a digital format with NFTs playing a big part.

“French Fashion” and “Haute Couture Federation” partnered up with the “Arianee” platform to create NFTs that could be exchanged in the 2022 men’s fall/summer fashion week in Paris and other high fashion exhibitions.

These tokens allow its users to view exclusive fashion; one of them from famed fashion digital artist Richard Haines.

It could be said that the introduction of NFTs during fashion week illustrates a paradigm shift.

4. Louis Vuitton and NFTs collecting game

In celebration of its founder’s 200th anniversary birthday on August the 4th, Louis Vuitton combined fashion and technology by introducing “Louis the Game”, an adventure-style game where players would have to traverse through a dollhouse belonging to Vivienne.

Apart from that, players traveled to different lands to collect 200 candles to represent the 200th anniversary birthday.

The adventure featured 30 hidden NFTs with 10 NFTs in collaboration with “Beeple”, a popular NFT artist.

NFTs in this game are open for collection and are not for sale to the public.

5. Overpriced – scannable hoodies that allow owners to show off their NFT

Overpriced, the self-proclaimed first fashion brand in the world driven by NFTs, has designed a real-life hoodie with a scannable code that allows the hoodie’s owners to show it off.

This hoodie is being sold on the NFT platform “BlockParty” for 26,000 USD.

The fashion industry is welcoming blockchain technology

Aside from the fashion industry welcoming NFTs and using blockchain technology as part of their business strategy, Prada, Richemont, and LVMH, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, have collaborated in ways “never before seen”.

These three fashion giants have partnered up and created the “Aura” blockchain group to offer tracing solutions to their customers.

In terms of tracing product histories and a product’s authenticity, customers can trace the origins of raw materials used to create their purchases, search for a specific item within a particular store, and view trading activities in the used market.

Luxury fashion brands such as Bulgari, Cartier, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, and Prada have all joined the platform.

NFTs provide an outlet for fashion brands, icons, and artists to showcase and sell their work.

Brands like Burberry, Coach and Longines are beginning to sell NFTs in their virtual fashion exhibition through the Metaverse.

For those who believe NFTs are only for the artists and Picasso’s of the world, take another glance at the fashion houses you love. Because aside from the digital art pieces that have made headlines, fashion is only one area everyone can enjoy in the real world or as NFTs.

Original article: https://zipmex.com/learn/nfts-in-the-fashion-industry/