NFT
Vintage clothing NFT While collectibles may be different products than other goods, both have fostered secondary markets with value that is largely determined by provenance and rarity as well as unique traits. Those commonalities led to MNTGE (pronounced “Mintage”), a digital fashion startup that seeks to bridge the gap between vintage wear and the meta.
MNTGE was founded by Nick Adler—entrepreneur and Snoop Dogg’s brand manager—along with sneaker designer and streetwear store owner Sean Wotherspoon and former Adidas marketing manager Brennan Russo. Adler told Decrypt that he and Russo had the “aha moment” behind MNTGE while visiting Wotherspoon’s shop, Round Two.
“We just started to kind of really geek out over it,” said Adler of the parallels and potential mash-up between NFTs and vintage apparel.
A MNTGE wearable digital scannable from a physical jacket Image: MNTGE
We launch Wednesday with an Ethereum NFT pass Day One, MNTGE seeks to bring physical vintage fashion into the NFT world in digital wearables that are compatible with metaverse platforms. It also aims to create a community of fashion and streetwear enthusiasts, giving priority access to vintage finds.
MNTGE’s plans after launching the mint pass are varied, but they start with a drop of digital fashion curated by Wotherspoon himself in Q1 2023. The drop will showcase the kind of technology that the startup is playing with, using a high-end capture system—the same used to create digital doubles of actors for movies—to perfectly recreate physical vintage apparel.
Adler presented a video demonstration of the jacket. The jacket was assembled using imagery from the rig. This digital wearable is stitch-accurate. It’s based on a real 1960s denim jacket that Wotherspoon won at auction, and Adler said that his co-founder wanted to be able to see the stitching on the scanned digital recreation.
Drop a 🌊 if you’re hype for our first drop with @seanwotherspoon !
Check https://t.co/HPpYB9r5PY for updates on our Mint Pass & insights on our first collection! pic.twitter.com/LQEn1BwKTl
— MNTGE (@mntge_io) November 23, 2022
Wotherspoon is a collector of vintage clothing and has worked for brands such as Nike, Adidas and Porsche. Decrypt MNTGE’s goals to bring “a level of detail and imagination that you wouldn’t have expected in a Web3 garment before.”
While it would be possible for MNTGE to simply scan existing vintage apparel and sell those garments as NFTs, there’s an obvious legal hurdle to clear. Adler said that the startup has obtained “broad licenses” from as-yet-unannounced brands to bring their vintage fashion into the metaverse, but that it will first establish itself through pieces that aren’t tied to licenses.
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Each of the 1,500 Day One mint passes will sell for 0.5 ETH (about $640) and grant holders access to MNTGE’s token-gated Discord community, plus priority access to Wotherspoon’s drop and more ahead from other designers. There will also be NFTs airdropped to holders along the way—bonus “Easter eggs,” Adler said.
MNTGE will be offering holders access to the same vintage gems Wotherspoon and associates frequently source beyond digital drops. MNTGE Market pass holders will be able shop at the future MNTGE Market website to purchase authentic vintage apparel. Adler explained that the store will be sold without the typical high prices seen in trendy shops.
MNTGE cofounders Adler, Wotherspoon and Russo (from right), as well as founding advisor Clarke Miyasaki. Image: MNTGE
MNTGE plans to host future pop-up shops in the art and fashion worlds, including Art Basel and New York Fashion Week. This will provide additional benefits for holders. The firm also works with NFT. profile picture (PFP) Adler stated that the projects would be used to create future collaborations in digital apparel.
Snoop was also helped in his Numerous NFT-related endeavorsAdler was an advisor to a number of Web3 projects, including the Bored Ape Yacht Club And The Sandbox. He’s now creating for the metaverse at a time in which NFT land plots and avatars no longer command the kind of towering sums and fervent demand This is what it looked like last year..
Instead, MNTGE is a project he created from scratch to make something that will last the bear market. Hardware like AR glasses and VR headsets Adler predicts that digital apparel will become more accessible and approachable in the future. As an NFT-powered Web3 metaverse expands, Adler believes that digital clothing will flourish.
“Some of the hype has died, and you’re gonna see a lot of losers from the metaverse craze,” he said. “But there will be a handful that sustain and will come out as big winners. We’re going to go into a future where this metaverse exists.”