Heritage brands Gucci and Playboy want in on Ethereum NFT frenzy 🚨 This article is 4 years old...
Heritage brands Gucci and Playboy want in on Ethereum NFT frenzy
NFTs seem to have taken the world by storm and opportunists are capitalizing on the trend.
2 min read
Updated: Apr. 7, 2021 at 2:38 pm UTC
Gucci and Playboy, two of the world’s biggest heritage fashion brands, are jumping in on the non-fungible token (NFT) trend, buoyed by the latter’s rise in recent months.
Jumping into NFTs
NFTs, for the uninitiated, are blockchain-based representations of tangible or non-tangible objects that prove their holders are the true owners of whichever underlying assets they back. These can include digital art, crypto-collectibles, and other tokenized embodiments of real-world assets.
Gucci and Playboy are targeting just that. The former is a luxury fashion house aimed mostly at women, while Playboy is an American men’s lifestyle brand. They were launched in 1921 and 1953 respectively and are trying to appeal to younger audiences with their upcoming NFTs.
“We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Nifty Gateway, the premiere platform for NFT art,” tweeted Playboy this morning. “Our entry into NFT art builds on Playboy’s long history of providing a platform for artists and creative self-expression.”
Our entry into NFT art builds on Playboy’s long history of providing a platform for artists and creative self-expression.
— Playboy (@Playboy) April 6, 2021
The firm said its first NFT drop would be a collaboration with digital artist ‘Slime Sunday.’ It added that more curated NFT collections would be released at later dates from its ‘70-year archive of art and photography.’
“We are thrilled by all of the innovation and access the blockchain can bring, and a big piece of our work will be supporting artists as a collector and via upcoming grants,” it stated.
The drop would be available on NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway, a part of the Winklevoss twins-owned crypto exchange Gemini.
Gucci gang
Gucci, on the other hand, is yet to launch any NFTs but confirmed its interest in a statement over the weekend. “It’s only a matter of time,” the firm said, when asked by lifestyle outlet Vogue Business about its involvement in the NFT market.
(3) More NFTs, more collectible projects, more corporations like Gucci & Playboy entering.
Top artists like Murakami and Damien Hirst creating NFTs.
Now, these corporations, big artists & celebrities will ALWAYS sell. But, the exposure they bring is more important.
— Loopify ?♂️ (@Loopifyyy) April 6, 2021
Marjorie Hernandez, founder of Lukso, a blockchain platform that works with fashion brands, explained the move, “Luxury brands were behind on the e-commerce trend, so there’s now more of a willingness to experiment with new technologies like blockchain.’
She added, “The question is just who will pull the trigger first.”
The NFT market has grown from a $200 million niche in 2019 to an over $25 billion behemoth at press time—seeing celebrities, pop stars, forgotten crypto projects, and other opportunistic firms alike issue their own digital art to flip to the public at oft-expensive prices.
But given the likes of Gucci and Playboy plotting moves into the market, the frenzy could just be starting.
Explore NFT Coins on CryptoSlate.
