Yesterday Diesel owner OTB Group said it’s forming a new division, Brave Virtual Xperience (BVX), to design products and experiences for games and the metaverse, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The group, which owns several other fashion brands such as Maison Margiela, Marni, and Jil Sander, aims to engage a younger audience.
Just last week, it was revealed a new Diesel sneaker “Prototype” would be launched physically and in the form of a digital asset or NFT. In October, it signed up to AURA, the blockchain-based network founded by LVMH that enables fashion brands to prove the authenticity of a purchased physical product and track its sustainability credentials.
“I have always believed that technology was the next frontier for the fashion industry. Through BVX we want to lead the transformation of the fashion and luxury industry and meet the demands of current and future consumers to deliver products and experiences in the metaverse,” said Renzo Rosso, Chairman of OTB Group. Stefano Rosso will lead the division.
Its sneaker NFT already includes associations with two of the names in the fashion NFT sector, TheFabricant and Neuno. TheFabricant positions itself as a digital only fashion house so it deals with the 3D vision and design. In September, Vogue Singapore launched an NFT collection in association with TheFabricant.
Neuno is positioning itself as a marketplace for NFT based fashion. In contrast with OpenSea, which is more like the eBay of NFTs, Neuno wants to be the digital equivalent of Net-a-porter (our description, not theirs). So far, there’s not much to see as it’s such an early stage, but the marketplace is expected to launch with the Diesel sneaker. NFTs of the sneaker were gifted to attendees at the NFT.nyc event last week.
While plenty of fashion brands have launched NFTs, including Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabanna, Jimmy Choo and DKNY, others have 3D or metaverse tie-ups, but few are for NFTs. Yesterday Softbank invested in Asian fashion platform Zepeto, which has numerous fashion tie-ups but is only just starting to explore NFTs. However, Burberry has an NFT partnership with Mythical Games’ blockchain game Blankos Block Party. And Gucci is said to be mulling metaverse NFTs.
