Can Brands and NFTs Coexist?

Streetwear and NFT culture share a lot of commonalities.
Secondary streetwear digital markets can integrate NFTs as a seal of authenticity.
Brands will be required to develop NFT strategies to increase their digital exposure.

The streetwear and luxury fashion market are gaining industry capital, fuelled by a growing demand for exclusive products. Exclusivity and unicity are the same values that attract NFT investors. Both industries can complement each other because they are built on the same human emotions, which ultimately developed into facile secondary markets.

It Takes Two to Tango

Collecting and trading is a cultural behavior shared amongst both industries.Thus, constantly reinforcing the same discourse factors in creating the basis of a niche culture that is governed by a set of rules and cultural traits. . Because the streetwear culture and NFT participants constantly engage in cultural activities of trading their assets for profit, the industries show similarities in how individuals perceive their culture.

To pertain to the financial expectations, individuals participating in the trade need to be sure of one thing; authenticity. In the Complex podcast, Bobby Hundreds, the co-founder of The Hundreds label, said that brands sell anything but the product itself and do that through cultural association.

“What we do with sneakers and streetwear is sell this idea of social status and community and identity.”

Similarly, NFTs communicate the same value, and owning a high ticket NFT like a Crypto Punk is the ultimate flex. Although it is not streetwear NFT, the fashion industry could adopt the same practice and own the physical equivalent as an NFT.

Brands such as Nike are already experimenting with NFTs, as a way to generate passive profit from individuals who transact Nike footwear on secondary markets such as StockX or eBay. However, NFTs can be a catalyzing disruptor for secondary markets because they can eliminate the need for an intermediary to service product authentication, which is paramount to the value of every product.

On The Flipside

Brands are adopting NFTs early as a way to increase their market exposure while not providing any value.
Copyright laws will need to be adjusted in order to protect brands from malicious uses of their IP.
Sneaker NFTs have been purchased for 22 ETH.

A Reflection of Their Personality (Online)

Collectors purchase limited products, whether they are sneakers or NFTs because they retain or grow in value, and they can show off their possessions and communicate social status within their culture, similar to how CryptoPunks avatars have grown in popularity over the past months.

In a series of messages, Bogdan Macovei, the owner of Sneakers Industry, a sneaker store in Romania, told DailyCoin that people select styles and brands based on their personality. He further argues that while this currently takes place physically, the “need for NFTs will grow in line with market adoption.

“Every person who wears a specific piece of clothing, expresses his own personality, through his style and brands he chooses to wear.”

Thus, NFTs are a symbiosis of ideals into the developing digital space. Bogdan said that NFTs as collectibles bear similarities because a collector seeks something unique:

“Fashion collectors seek authentic products. Pieces of clothing no one wears have a story of their own or a product worn by a known person. In short, they seek exclusivity.”

NFTs, through their non-fungibility and immutability factor, can add unheard-of benefits for the collectibles market because they can work as proof of ownership or a seal of authenticity. A characteristic sought by many sneaker collectors. Bogdan said that both sectors are heavily inclined towards new and innovative products, and their interests complement each other.

Why You Should Care?

The metaverse is no longer a distant reality, and our behavior and preferences will become factored into its development. NFTs can provide both consumers and brands with a tool to verify the integrity of a product; however, they can also develop into a tool to maximize the profit margins of major fashion enterprises.