Renowned luxury brand Prada expands its presence in Web3 with the upcoming launch of a new NFT Collection. It will correspond to the series of physical shirts that have been on sale since December 2019.
One shirt, one NFT
According to the company’s website, the 100 Ethereum-based NFTs are a matching complement to the physical Prada Timecapsule, a series of fashionable black or white shirts launched in 2019. The physical project, comprising 100 neutral shirts designed in collaboration with the artist Cassius Hirst, son of Damien Hirst, will be directly linked to the NFTs about to be dropped.
Each Timecapsule drop will be linked to both a gender-neutral physical product and a gifted NFT, a GIF of the capsule video which represents the digital version of the physical item.
The release of NFT aims to mark the evolution of the “Timecapsule initiative”. On the first Thursday of every month since 2019, the world-renowned brand has featured an exclusive edit of items from the series on its website.
In the second phase, after the airdrop on the upcoming Thursday, every owner of the physical shirt will also be gifted with an NFT, which will act as a digital record documenting the drop’s serial number and including a unique number associated with each shirt.
An approach centered on the physical elements
Forbes coverage indicates that the price of each NFT will be denominated in fiat currency rather than crypto. The Aura Blockchain Consortium, backed by LVMH, Prada Group and Cartier to offer solutions for authenticity, ownership and traceability, is behind Prada’s latest foray into NFTs.
The coverage notes that, unlike its primary competitor Gucci mainly targeting Web 3.0 natives from the gaming community, Prada has a strategy focused on “metaverse refuseniks” who are not natively interested in Web3 or the blockchain technology as it tries to integrate its NFTs into pre-established physical items. In this way, it aims to build its virtual empire around its loyal or existing customers.
The brand’s first NFT project – “Adidas for Prada re-source” built on Polygon – with sportswear giant Adidas also came to life through a unique approach. Working with Adidas Originals and artist Zach Lieberman, the brand has created art projects featuring user-created and creator-owned artwork.
