The rise of NFTs in fashion: why it matters and how to join the party with Cappasity
Since the digital world offers amazing, almost limitless opportunities to the fashion industry, more and more brands are now stepping through the digital door into the metaverse by launching creative NFT projects. Let’s look at what fashion brands have leapt into the NFT market, why it matters and what Cappasity is bringing to the table.
The first recorded sale of a fashion NFT was the Fabricant-designed ‘Iridescence’ dress which sold for $9,500 in May 2019. Gucci became the first major luxury fashion brand to enter the NFT space when it auctioned its Aria film for $25,000 in May 2021. Since then, a growing number of well-known brands have jumped on the NFT bandwagon. Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Nike, Clinique, Gap, Nars, Levi’s, and Adidas — all of them have launched NFT projects.
The reasons for fashion brands’ obsession with NFTs is quite obvious: they can see that there are endless opportunities in this space. Some brands are releasing NFT collectables or limited editions to open up new revenue streams or raise money for charity. Indeed, NFTs have the potential to become an enormous revenue generator for the fashion market. In February 2021, young brand RTFKT, who specialize in the sale of virtual hypebeast sneakers, sold 600 pairs of virtual shoes for a sweet US$3.1 million in under seven minutes.
When Gucci auctioned its NFT Aria Film in May 2021, all proceeds from the NFT sale were donated to UNICEF USA to support the organization’s role in ensuring everyone around the world has equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. In August 2021, Burberry joined the NFT party by launching a suite of NFT characters and accessories for Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party. They sold out in a flash for a total of nearly $400,000.
With more and more luxury NFT projects making a buzz, brands’ focus shifted to using NFTs as a new way to engage with the audience. In September 2021, Dolce & Gabbana launched its first NFT Genesis Collection, which fetched approximately $6 million. The virtual collection targeted the company’s loyal audience and eaсh sale came with the promise of Dolce & Gabbana experiences, including invitations to future Alta Moda events. This is an excellent example of how a luxury brand can use NFT drops for content gating. The Italian luxury fashion house will grant buyers different levels of exclusive insider access, similar to the way music artists have given membership access through their NFTs.
In October 2021, Clinique became the first Estée Lauder brand to offer an NFT. Instead of selling NFTs, the beauty brand has given away three unique non-fungible tokens among active members of the brand’s community. To win one of the NFTs, the brand’s fans needed to sign up for the Clinique loyalty program and explain how they bring optimism to the people around them on social networks. With the NFT airdrop, the beauty brand intended to reward consumers for being loyal and give something valuable back to their community.
Blockchain and NFTs are of greatest interest to a younger generation, so there’s no wonder that some luxury brands use NFT airdrops to reach the tech-savvy gen Z audience. In October 2021, Hugo Boss jumped into NFTs with a TikTok challenge that ‘broke’ the internet with 3.1 million #BOSSMoves videos and more than 12.5 billion views. For the chance to win AR jackets and their physical twins, the customers needed to create their own baseball trading card with a Hugo Boss branded effect on TikTok. The campaign set social media records for the company.
Some brands launch NFT projects, in which consumers must weigh up risk and reward and burn an NFT in exchange for something else. Champion’s partnership with Non-Fungible People is a great example of how a brand can engage with the audience through NFT burning. In December, Non-Fungible People sold out a collection of 8,888 NFT profile pictures. In February, it will randomly give out 888 free NFT tokens to holders of its profile pictures. The recipients can then choose to burn their original NFT in exchange for an upgrade that dresses their profile picture in Champion apparel, but the design and scarcity won’t be revealed until they burn their original. This creates a sense of risk and reward and makes the NFT project more intriguing.
2022 began with Adidas and Prada’s collaborative NFT art project, a completely different idea from previous luxury NFTs. The Italian luxury fashion house and the sportswear giant joined forces to enter the metaverse. They launched an NFT project that enables the community to contribute to a large-scale digital artwork in a Beeple-style collage and earn some money for their involvement.
To participate, anyone could submit a photo using a specially-designed filter. Three thousand of the individual photos were selected by raffle and minted by Adidas as unique NFTs for free. Then, the selected images were combined as tiles into one mass patchwork NFT, designed by digital artist and creative coder Zach Lieberman. This NFT project is a stand-out for the luxury industry because it leans into the Web 3.0 principles of co-creation and co-ownership with its community. The brands enabled their fans to discover the benefits of Web 3.0, co-creation, digital ownership and NFTs.
Since modern consumers are much more demanding and want to be entertained by brands as never before, more fashion retailers will see the opportunity in the NFT space and launch their own engaging projects. According to Morgan Stanley, luxury NFTs could become a $56 billion market by 2030 and could see dramatically increased demand thanks to the metaverse. As more aspects of people’s lives move to Web 3.0, demand for luxury NFTs will increase in the coming years.
However, the technology doesn’t currently allow brands to easily integrate content that their customers can interact with. NFTs usually contain a link to a photo or video, but such a visualization of an item makes it impossible to engage with the object and lacks interactivity. Cappasity is here to change that. In 2022, Cappasity’s platform will allow retailers to create 3D NFTs easily and quickly. We are the first company to provide the opportunity to create immersive NFTs with photorealistic quality. The proprietary utility token CAPP will be used in the provision of NFT services.
3D NFTs will allow users to interact with digitized items like they would in a brick-and-mortar store: rotate them, zoom in and examine the details. Brands will also have the opportunity to embed augmented reality (AR) and virtual try-on content inside an NFT. These immersive NFTs will create an unforgettable experience and can help brands increase customer engagement, brand awareness and open new revenue streams.
To help you take the leap into the NFT market, Cappasity will organize 3D/AR content production, data streaming, and 3D NFT minting. We can also customize smart contracts according to your business tasks, provide API for verifying NFT owners on the brand’s website, and organize the storage and access to special hidden content for NFT owners. Brands will have the opportunity to sell 3D NFTs on the Cappasity platform.
NFTs have already transformed the way fashion brands engage with their customers, and the ability to create immersive NFTs easily and quickly will help them get the most out of the NFT market.
If you want to launch your first immersive NFT project, contact our team at: support@cappasity.com
Stay tuned and follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for more news!
