If you were under the impression that fashion brands might be in any way tempted to relent in their levels of involvement in Web3, it may be time to disabuse yourself of that notion. 

That’s because – as reported by Glossy – there have been continued announcements from such firms lately on new elements of their Web3 strategy.

Tiffany & Co. unveils its “NFTiff’s” linked to physical products 

One of the key announcements on the fashion-in-Web3 front this summer has been the American luxury jewellery and specialty retailer, Tiffany & Co.’s confirmation that it will begin selling NFTs for access to physical goods. 

The brand has referred to these new NFTs as “NFTiff’s”. The idea is that those holding NFTs from a CryptoPunks collection will be able to buy a physical one-of-a-kind replica of their CryptoPunk, in the form of jewellery. 

A minimum of 30 gemstones will be featured in each 18-karat rose or yellow gold pendant, with Tiffany jewellers carefully colour-matching them to the digital image. They will be available for purchase for 30 Ethereum, which at the time of typing, is about £42,000 or $51,000 USD. 

Cryptocurrencies gain even greater traction in fashion retail 

Another eye-catching recent announcement on matters of Web3 strategy for fashion brands has come from Gucci, which became the first luxury brand to add Apecoin to its list of accepted payment options through the crypto payment service provider, BitPay. Gucci currently accepts 10 cryptocurrencies at 70% of its own United States stores. 

Not only Gucci, but also such big names in the high-end and fashion spaces as Balenciaga, TAG Heuer, Pacsun, and Alo Yoga have started accepting cryptocurrencies. 

Although cryptocurrency payments are not presently a mainstream option of relevance to most fashion shoppers – a report by the Federal Reserve in May stating that just 3% of adults had used cryptocurrency to transfer funds or make purchases – they are certainly moving ever-more into the view of the most luxury-minded customers. 

What are native Web3 brands doing right now? 

It isn’t only the most familiar ‘legacy’ fashion brands that are continuing to make interesting moves in Web3. For example, Jonathan Koon – former designer for the Vancouver menswear brand Private Stock – recently launched the Mostly Heard Rarely Seen 8-Bit collection. 

The 8-Bit collection – a spinoff of the main MHRS line which launched in 2015 – was created in collaboration with the retail metaverse gaming platform, Highstreet. Included in the range of hoodies, hats and T-shirts are NFT twin products that the customer is able to wear within the Highstreet metaverse world. 

The way it works is simple: each item in the collection is accompanied by a QR code giving the customer an NFT variant of the product. Various luxury retailers have signed up to carry this metaverse-linked street collection, including the likes of Saks Fifth Avenue, Selfridges, Beyman, Farfetch, and Bloomingdale’s. 

Questions of Web3 strategy, then, remain very much on the lips of key decision-makers across the major fashion brands over the summer of 2022, and will doubtless remain so for a long time beyond. For a discussion of what Web3 could mean for your own brand’s growth objectives, it could scarcely be easier to reach out to the Skywire London team.