Written by: Roy Kang

Everyone owns sneakers. From those dirty Air Forces you wore in high school to those “cool-kids” sneakers like Yeezys or Jordans, sneakers have been around and loved for centuries. Sneakers are not just a pair of comfortable shoes anymore. It’s an icon. Now, people not only buy sneakers to wear them but also hoard them as a valuable asset, knowing they would never wear them. The value of shoes is not decided on how well they fit, how comfortable, or how pretty they are. Instead, they are like gold. To be kept and to be looked upon. Some might not understand. Some might say shoes are made to be worn, not to be observed. But now, if you thought a regular sneaker collection was crazy for burning grands on shoes you would never wear, there is an even crazier trend of buying digital sneakers.

What? People pay money for sneakers that they can’t even see in real life? Yes. RTFKT(pronounced Artifact) is a digital fashion and collectible company founded in January 2020 by Benoit Pagotto, Chris Le, and Steven Vasilev. RTFTK has shown a strong presence in the NFT world in just about two years, creating items from digital sneakers to collectible items, collaborating with brands and artists like Takashi Murakami, Rimowa, and Nike. Netting over 3 million dollars in sales each drop and eventually being acquired by Nike in December 2021, it’s proven that RTFKT is taking success. However, apart from RTKFT, or even considering RTKFT, is there really a future in digital sneakers? Can NFTs survive in the fashion world?

RTFKT is one of the first and only digital fashion brands that took such enormous success. What differentiates RTFKT from previous attempts is the connection between the physical world and the digital world. On OpenSea, the world’s first and largest web3 marketplace for NFTs and crypto collectibles, RTFKT’s most successful NFTs are CloneX, with Takashi Murakami, RTFKT MNLTH, and Nike X RTFKT Trillium Lace Engine, with a volume of 385,618 ETH, 57,069 ETH, and 15,040 ETH respectively. While other projects not even reaching 10,000 ETH, these three projects are unique because of what it offers to buyers. CloneX offers a unique avatar in the metaverse, meaning owners of the NFT can use that avatar anywhere in the metaverse. RTFKT MNLTH and Trillium Lace Engine offer exclusive access and discounts for the real-life sneakers of the Nike X RTFKT collaboration. NFTs can’t succeed if it is just NFTs. Like how these RTFKT projects took tremendous success, it is important to give buyers a real-life incentive when buying an NFT.

Currently, successful NFTs are classified into two categories. Digital NFTs that focus on ownership and NFTs that focus on community building. Bored Ape, another famous NFT creator, although it isn’t a fashion NFT, has a very active user base due to the latter reason. Owners of the NFT gain exclusive access to private online clubs, in-person events, and so on. Due to this, buying Bored Ape is not just an investment. Instead, buying the NFT means buying that community. Similarly, Nouns, a rising NFT creator, reaps success through the community. One key feature Nouns offers buyers is its DAO(decentralized autonomous organization). Every Nouns owner can join the Nouns DAO and help shape the project in their desired direction. Noun holders can sponsor and vote on proposals for the board to fund, and past proposals include featuring Nouns on Superbowl, Nouns documentaries, and so on. Moreover, Nouns are a type of profile picture(PFP) collection, which are NFTs that can be used as profile pictures online. Therefore, Nouns offer both the inclusivity of a community and the individuality in that community through unique PFPs. Community building NFTs can work in two ways. Building its own exclusive community like Bored Ape or Nouns DAO, or showing uniqueness in a community like Nouns PFP. Such an aspect of community building was neglected in fashion NFTs.

As aforementioned, the reason why NFTs in fashion are so closed off and niche is due to the need for more incentives. For non-NFT collectors, fashion NFTs are nothing but investments or some pretty artworks they can see. If brands continue to produce NFTs that are nothing but thousands of dollars worth of pixels, there is no possibility to expand.

So, what can brands do to fix this problem? It’s easy. Just give consumers a reason to buy NFTs. To be more specific, there needs to be a stronger connection between the digital world of NFTs and the physical world of fashion, whether they are community building, identity in communities, or ownership. An example of this would be a collaboration with a game but with a more substantial presence in identity. Many luxury brands have collaborated with gaming companies to seek a presence in the metaverse. Balenciaga worked with Fortnite, Louis Vuitton worked with League of Legends, and so much more. However, these attempts lack uniqueness. It lacks the essence of fashion.

Why does one buy clothes? It’s to put forth an image. Fashion functions off being hot, special, cool, etc. People buy clothes to portray a particular image they desire, not just to have an item, and this is what previous collaborations have been missing. If you are a Fortnite fan, collaborating with Balencaiga wouldn’t lead them to buy the brand’s clothing because that doesn’t reveal your identity. If you are a Balenciaga fan, collaborating with Fortnite wouldn’t make you start playing the game, because, again, it does nothing to your identity. However, if Balenciaga and Fortnite’s collaboration worked as connecting a skin for a particular physical clothing piece, it could satisfy both customers. If Balenciaga released a new collection where someone buys an item, an NFT would come with it, allowing the buyer’s Fortnite character to wear it. That way, Balenciaga buyers would start playing Fortnite to show off their clothing, and Fortnite users would buy Balenciaga to decorate their characters and themselves. If a fashion brand’s collaboration with a game works this way, the usual buyers of the brand can satisfy their reason to buy that item. They can express themselves both in real life and in-game. Gamers can express the identity that clothing offers both in-game and in real life.

Another method of NFT usage is employing digital NFTs ownership as a solution to fashion’s chronic concern: authentication. Fashion inherently has its dark side to replicas. In 2020 alone, the fashion industry lost more than $50 billion due to fake products; while the global counterfeiting industry was expected to hit $4.2 trillion by 2022. To combat this, different fashion brands have come up with different techniques. For instance, Stone Island has a unique QR code attached to each piece on its tag, which customers can scan to verify whether their piece is authentic. Similarly, Chanel provides an authentication card for every handbag. However, it is difficult to keep track of these physical authentication tags. Stone Island’s tag gets lost all the time, and the same with Chanel’s card. If luxury brands can mint a corresponding NFT for every item, the authentication process will be much easier. Instead of keeping track of such physical tags or closely examining each item to find flaws, owners can simply show the NFT to authenticate their piece.

The last method luxury brands can effectively employ NFTs are through community building. Like Bored Ape, luxury brands can sell unique NFTs to loyal customers and create their own exclusive community. Hugo Boss is already doing something similar, except without NFTs. Its loyalty program, Hugo Boss Experience, offers multiple perks for loyal customers. Some rewards include complimentary alterations and monogramming, private styling appointments, and VIP events, even offering door-to-door Uber delivery from the store. This system could be points system into tokens and letting customers buy certain NFTs using a certain amount of coins. The brand can simplify the process of keeping track of these loyal customers since NFTs are unique and immutable and can also add an automatic update corresponding to the number of tokens each customer has. Customers can gain almost like a badge that they can use to brag about their status.

Fashion NFTs can’t just be NFTs for fashion. Many NFT projects are currently being done to simply show metaverse presence of the brand corresponding to the metaverse boom, not with specific intent. The answer to launching a successful fashion NFT is in fashion: give buyers what they want when buying a fashion piece. The exclusivity, the community, and the satisfaction of the desire to be unique are all what fashion brands have offered since the very start of fashion. Granted, the future of NFTs in fashion depends on the customers’ responsiveness towards the digital community and how much value online identity. However, if fashion NFTs can offer what traditional fashion has always been offering– exclusivity, community, and uniqueness– it won’t be a faraway future when you see every Fortnite character wearing different designer items.

“How Counterfeit Goods Affect the Fashion Industry.” Certilogo, 5 Aug. 2022, discover.certilogo.com/blogs/insights/how-counterfeit-goods-affect-fashion-industry#:~:text=In%202020%20alone%2C%20the%20fashion,and%20jewelry%2C%20handbags%20and%20luggage.