The Unicorn Phygital Wearable Collection, under the French luxury brand, Balmain is hitting the markets today, 22 March 2023. The collection is a part of their Web3 initiative. The drop is a limited series of NFT sneakers based on their Unicorn footwear brand, each with a pair of matching limited-edition physical shoes.
The collection includes 130 Unicorn sneakers NFTs packaged with identical physical counterparts paired with similar physical counterparts. The collection’s Unicorn bundles include five new shoe designs. The price ranges from $1595 and $2095, which may be paid in either regular cash or ETH.
Balmain Chief Marketing Officer Txampi Diz said that this initiative was taken place keeping in mind the merging of the physical and real world. Balmain is known for its bold decisions and is dedicated to exploring new pathways of fashion. This keeps the company engaged with the community while maintaining a diverse and global brand image.
This collaboration allows us to introduce this historic house to a broader audience.
The Ethereum NFTs in the collection were created in partnership with Space Runners, a digital fashion brand. Pantera, Polychain, Jump Capital, and Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu are among the investors in this venture. The holders of Balmain Unicorn NFTs along with the shoe shall be granted other perks as well. Some of these perks include early access to future Balmain drops and other exclusive Balmain goods, including more digital wearables for usage in online games and metaverse platforms.
Those tangible, more conventional add-ons, according to Space Runners Creative Director Rohan Chhabra, are the sweetness needed to help the medication of digital fashion go down with the currently crypto-cautious masses. Chhabra is adamant that digital wearables will one day dominate premium fashion, even surpassing physical garments in desirability. However, given the present state of the metaverse and popular opinions of the notion, he admits that such a reality may be further away than first believed.
Today’s release is the latest Web3 experiment for Balmain, which has actively explored collaborations, membership programs, and limited edition drops that use blockchain technology over a year’s time. Despite the present unfavourable climate for metaverse ventures, the digital fashion sector continues to rocket ahead. DressX, a digital fashion firm, launched a $15 million fundraising last week in order to continue producing only virtual apparel designs.
In 2020, Benoit Pagotto, Chris Le, and Steven Vasilev founded Rtfkt, which is a one-of-a-kind sneaker brand, except its shoes exist only in a digital world. They sell sneakers only as NFTs, highlighting the growing trend of digital ownership. According to DappRada, a platform to discover blockchain and decentralized application growth in 2022, NFT sales have increased by 67.57% and hit 101 million last year.