These retailers and brands are heavily focused on NFTs right now
These retailers and brands are leading the way in the booming non-fungible tokens (NFTs) space and showing that there really is substance behind the hype. Featuring boohoo, Starbucks, Selfridges, Paco Rabanne, Victor Vasarely, TAFT, and Dolce & Gabbana.
1. Starbucks
Starbucks will launch its own NFT collections later this year.
During its fiscal Q2 2022 earnings call last week, the coffee giant said that NFTs can help Starbucks extend its concept of the “third place”, that is, a place between home and work where people can feel a sense of belonging over coffee.
The company has brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to help serve as a special advisor on the project.
2. Selfridges, Paco Rabanne and Victor Vasarely
A first of its kind collaborative Web3 project with Paco Rabanne and Victor Vasarely, and powered by Selfridges, launched last month.
An NFT collection brings Paco's archive of haute-couture dresses and Vasarely's op-art artworks into the metaverse.
“Paco Rabanne likes to explore worlds where disciplines cross and meet,” says the brand’s new Managing Director, Nadia Dhouib.
“These 12 opulent NFTs are a way to show our fashion know-how and celebrate the creativity from the archives in modern grammar.”
“It’s our role to cherish and to inspire the new generation. Selling archive pieces as NFTs to cherish the past feels very natural, almost like a virtuous circle.”
3. TAFT
Direct-to-consumer men’s footwear brand, TAFT, will launch a limited edition NFT collection of winged animals and correlating sneaker illustrations in June.
“We’re doing something absolutely unheard of. We’re making a wearable NFT in the form of a sneaker,” says Kory Stevens, Founder and Designer at TAFT.
“Much like how an NFT is minted, the purchaser will get a limited, exclusive edition of the TAFT NFT Sneaker. Each pair will be assigned attributes randomly that match the exact NFT artwork.”
4. boohoo
Fast fashion big hitter boohoo has announced the launch of its first NFT collection.
Phase one of the brand’s move into this space included the launch of NFT education and community building platform @boohooverse on Twitter and Discord, which aims to onboard the female fashion community into Web3 ahead of the first drop.
boohoo ran a competition to support a second phase. This recruited artists in the NFT space to be part of what is pitched as “the biggest female led NFT collection yet”.
5. Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana has unveiled a NFT community called DGFamily, in collaboration with UNXD, a curated marketplace for digital luxury and culture.
Members will be able to purchase exclusive NFTs with a credit card, thanks to an integration with MoonPay’s NFT Checkout solution.
There will be access to exclusive drops and collaborations, both digital wearables and physical products, as well as an exclusive slate of digital and physical Dolce & Gabbana events.
Listen to Tinie Tempah. You know it makes sense
The metaverse is not something retailers can afford to ignore, the rapper and angel investor Tinie Tempah declared at Retail Technology Show during April, calling it an “incredible opportunity” for businesses to find new customers and revenue.
The British musician said retailers and brands who do not get involved or invest in the metaverse now will look like those who missed out on the beginning of the dot.com wave or the rise of Facebook.
He added that the space will tie in with the growing popularity of NFTs.
He acquired a piece of NFT art from a popular collection called bored Ape Club for £2,000 and within nine months people were offering him £350,000 for it.
“I have never seen a return like that, and for me it’s only this disruptive crypto space where this can happen,” Tempah commented.
