Ever wondered how a luxury fashion brand manages to remain relevant through successive generations? A secret to their success is through embracing a dynamic strategy based on the latest market trends. Recently, the growth of cryptocurrency and concepts such as the metaverse and NFTs, have ushered a new wave of adoption among luxury brands and Prada is the latest to solidify its presence in the NFT space.
On Thursday, Italian luxury fashion brand Prada will release a set of 100 Ethereum NFTs and an apparel collection connected to its Time Capsule Collection event. The brand is also expanding its digital presence through the launch of a community server on Discord, Prada Crypted.
Further details
Initiated in December 2019, the ‘Timecapsule Collection is an online event through which Prada releases limited edition items in select markets worldwide on the first Thursday of every month. Customers have a 24-hour window to make purchases. However, the drop on June 2 will now include a gifted NFT along with the purchase of merchandise from Prada’s recent collaboration with U.K.-based artist, Cassius Hirst.
Prada’s initial offering under the collaboration will feature a unisex collared T-shirt with black and white options, along with a GIF of the black or white pill capsule. The NFTs will include the drop’s serial number and reflect a number associated with each physical shirt. Meanwhile, all Timecapsule NFTs will be issued on the Ethereum blockchain and owners will be offered exclusive benefits, according to the official statement.
Notably, this isn’t Prada’s first tango with NFTs. The firm partnered with Adidas in January this year to release its “adidas for Prada re-source” collection on the Polygon network. As per OpenSea, the floor price for a single NFT under the collection was 0.08 Eth.
NFT grapples with market slowdown
With cryptocurrencies trading well below their 2021 peaks, the current environment isn’t really encouraging for metaverse-related projects and NFTs. A report from NonFungible showed that NFT sales were down by 50% year-on-year in the First Quarter of 2022, indicating a period of distress.
However, retailers remain confident about the space’s long-term prospects. Retailers such as Balenciaga, Gucci, and Hublot have veered into the world of cryptocurrencies as adoption remains strong, especially among the youth.
Recently, Billionaire Tim Draper revealed that with retailers now moving towards crypto adoption, women, who ‘control 80% of retail spending’, might even trigger the next Bitcoin rally.