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Gucci is partnering with NFT community Bored Ape Yacht Club on a new metaverse initiative that builds on past projects, harnessing fictional characters and storylines to engage and reward the most rapt of fans. And this time, those fans can cop physical Gucci gear.
Following the announcement last week of a years-long partnership with BAYC parent company Yuga Labs, today, Gucci has announced that it will appear in Otherside, the immersive, game-like, NFT-based virtual world inhabited by creatures called Kodas created by Yuga Labs. Ape and Mutant Ape NFT holders had first dibs on buying digital plots of land in Otherside via a native cryptocurrency called ApeCoin.
The Gucci project, which becomes available on 6 April, is called Otherside: Relics by Gucci, and it includes a phygital, limited-edition Gucci-branded pendant called a KodaPendant, sold for 450 APE, which is about $1,800. The storyline builds on one currently being told on Otherside’s Twitter account, centring around blue carved flasks that are turned into pendants. Eligible players must complete a series of tasks to be able to purchase a digital pendant, of which only 3,333 are available. The storytelling continues after the purchase, with pendants generating traits that unlock new features in Otherside, and access to a physical counterpart in the form of a GG-eyed Koda silver pendant, coming this summer.
Otherside, which is still in early testing, is only available to people who hold “Otherdeeds”, the term for the virtual Otherside real estate. In the past, projects like these have required ownership of multiple tokens and can require completions of various tasks or achievement of other thresholds.
When the partnership was announced last week, Gucci shared that it was “designed to extend the engagement between their respective communities by exploring the intersection between fashion and entertainment in the metaverse”. Gucci has yet to share specifics on how to access the experience or the NFT goods beyond the Otherside world.
Last year, Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri shared pointed words on the potential he sees in the space: “Anyone who says Web3 is a pretext to sell digital sneakers misses the point and ignores its potential. There are the sceptics who question whether the metaverse experience can be reconciled with the values of luxury — who question the point of the metaverse itself. Digital collectibles are a drop in an ocean whose boundaries are yet to be defined.” He added that “Gucci is not afraid to be a first mover in many areas and will continue to adopt this mindset and challenge the status quo.”
Gucci has continued its aggressive pace of metaverse and Web3 experimentation, having introduced a temporary space that sold NFTs in blockchain-based virtual world platform The Sandbox; a physical capsule collection riffing on the similarities between the GG monogram and the gaming phrase “good game”; and an ongoing Roblox world that sells non-NFT digital wearables and invites celebrity visitors such as Miley Cyrus and footballer Jack Grealish. This project is reminiscent of an earlier partnership with narrative project 10KTF last year, in which Gucci digitally dressed the avatars from popular NFT PFP collections, including BAYC, Cryptopunks (now owned by Yuga), World of Women and others. Since then, 10KTF parent company Wenew Labs was acquired by Yuga.
Meanwhile, phygital goods and Web3 community partnerships have become key hallmarks of luxury brand NFT strategies amid a quieting crypto market and a so-called metaverse winter, in which hype has waned, and brands are adapting to more long-term strategies. Prada, for example, has extended its monthly Timecapsule drops to include physical goods linked to NFTs, and Tiffany sold out of a limited collection of fine-jewellery Cryptopunk pendants. Similarly, Tag Heuer and Timex have made watches specifically for NFT PFP holders, and Balmain partnered with Web3 community Space Runners on a collection of phygital sneakers.
Update: This article was updated to include the price of the KodaPendant. (3 April, 2023)
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