Porsche Digital’s NFT Not-so-ugly Sweater Collection
Sometimes, innovation emerges from the unexpected combination of otherwise completely unrelated things. Here’s everything you need to know about Porsche Digital’s NFT not-so-ugly sweater collection.
In early December, we―the Porsche Digital Secret Santa team―embarked on a challenging but really exciting project to create a special present for all Porsche Digital employees; it involved combining two absolutely unrelated 21st-century cultural phenomena, ugly Christmas sweaters and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), into a one-of-a-kind digital asset collection. As a way to celebrate Christmas, Winter Holidays, and Porsche Digital’s fifth anniversary, we created a collection of 270 unique, not-so-ugly digital winter sweaters, each of which was minted on the Solana blockchain as an NFT and then distributed at random to our colleagues worldwide.
Our Goal: Putting a smile on our colleagues’ faces
How did this idea come about? As we thought about what present we could give to our globally growing Porsche Digital family for Christmas, we decided that we wanted a gift that, on the one hand, was innovative and cutting edge (i.e. fit well with Porsche Digital) and that, on the other hand, could easily be distributed to our teams around the world. As you probably know, NFTs are all the rage at the moment―NFT sales reached a whopping $11.6 billion in the last quarter of 2021―so we decided to provide every colleague with proof of ownership of a unique digital asset.
Looking for a visual concept for the collection of items, we came up with the idea of creating an ugly holiday sweater collection — or a not-so-ugly one in our case. Instead of just using random designs, we created Porsche Digital-themed winter sweaters, the motifs of which are inspired by the geographical locations of our nine offices spread across the globe. In addition to its sense of humor, what we liked about the idea was that it captured the international character of our company. We were confident that these sweaters would put a smile on all our colleagues’ faces, no matter where in the world they live. Because let’s face it, who doesn’t love winter sweaters…
From idea to launch in just 4 weeks
With Christmas only about four weeks away, we were working to a very tight deadline, in addition to still working on our various main projects. While we had worked with blockchain technology on numerous projects before, none of us had in-depth experience in creating NFTs. Thus, it was an excellent opportunity for us to dive into the world of NFTs and learn and apply fundamentals of web 3 at the same time. Providing a first touchpoint for colleagues who were not yet familiar with blockchain and NFTs was another aspect very important to us.
Working on this project was fun and insightful. Although we had to squeeze in some coding at night, it was all worth it as we learnt so much in so little time. While only a side project, it perfectly encapsulates our attitude and what we at Porsche Digital believe in. We want to create value and spark excitement through digital engineering and are always eager to experiment and find out how things work. Our approach is characterized by a combination of curiosity, creativity, and the ability to get things done. Or, in short, dream and do.
One digital sweater for every colleague
How did our colleagues receive their NFT sweaters? We wanted to create a simple process that is easy for everyone to use regardless of their experience-level with NFTs and that can be completed in less than a couple of minutes. In three simple steps, our colleagues could claim their NFT sweaters: (I) install the Phantom-Wallet, or another wallet compatible with the Solana blockchain, (II) create a personal wallet, and (III) send us the public wallet address. Then, right in time before the Holidays, on December 22, we sent out the not-so-ugly sweaters to our colleagues.
The feedback from our colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive. A lot of colleagues reached out to us saying thank you. For most of them, it was their first experience with NFTs. And that’s what the project was really about: Putting a smile on our colleagues’ faces, celebrating the Holidays with our global team, while also providing a tangible touchpoint for them to learn about and engage with new technology.
This was definitely an exciting project, and we will continue to explore the opportunities both NFTs and the technologies behind it have to offer!
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products, and think digital with a focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies, and the people that drive our digital journey. If you want to know more, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
