Gucci the Italian fashion brand is the latest to embrace NFTs as it makes it way into web3 with the launch of its series of digital collectibles dubbed ‘SuperGucci’ in February.
Gucci, the luxury Italian fashion house, is the latest to enter Web 3 with the launch of ten non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on February 1.
The NFTs were co-designed by Gucci’s head of design, Alessandro Michele, in conjunction with the cult toy firm Superplastic. Each NFT will come with a ceramic sculpture co-designed by Gucci and handcrafted in Italy. Gucci’s first drop will be the NFT.
Superplastic is a collectibles company that has issued NFTs through the Winklevoss brothers‘ Nifty Gateway. Kidrobot founder Paul Budnitz founded Superplastic in 2018 and has sold millions of dollars in designer toys and apparel based on the characters Janky & Guggimon, Dayzee & Staxx, Kranky, and ShüDog.
Gucci announced the plan and the opening of a Discord channel on Friday, with the goal of encouraging open discussions with the community about what’s next in the metaverse.
Designer aficionados were taken aback in May when a virtual Gucci Dionysus bag was sold for 350,000 Robux ($4,115 at the time) on the gaming platform Roblox. In actual life, a similar purse costs $3,400.
“Remember: this Roblox purse is not an NFT and so has no value/use/transferability outside the Roblox world-yet it’s worth more than the physical one,” Reddit co-founder and VC investor Alexis Ohanian wrote in a tweet.
NFTs in the fashion world.
Auctioning NFTs has already brought in millions of dollars for high-end designer houses. Dolce & Gabbana debuted its NFT collection, Collezione Genesi, in September, and the collection sold for $5.65 million.
With more fashion labels launching NFTs, many people are wondering whether this is a watershed moment for the industry or just a case of trendhopping.
Last week, luxury fashion house Prada and sportswear behemoth Adidas announced the launch of an NFT project based on the Polygon network that allows fans to submit their own designs.
According to Morgan Stanley, the whole NFT industry is predicted to reach $300 billion by 2030, with brands like Gucci and Balenciaga in the best position to profit from metaverse digital collaborations.
The Gucci project thus far hasn’t included activation in popular open metaverses like The Sandbox or Decentraland.
