NFT
Digital fashion startup MNTGE launched its first access pass last December, and then rolled out designer Sean Wotherspoon’s first digital clothing drop in February. But now it’s getting physical with the upcycled vintage jeans tied this week NFTs.
During the Fruits & Veggies jean drop, which begins Wednesday, MNTGE (pronounced “Mintage”) will release just 100 pairs of vintage Levi’s jeans that featured embroidered product designs by Sean Wotherspoon. The MNTGE co-founder has previously designed clothing for brands such as Nike and Adidas and owns a popular streetwear store.
Each of the 100 total pairs, which span a variety of sizes, will retail for $200 to MNTGE Pass owners, or $250 to non-holders once the public sale begins tomorrow after the pass holder window. The Fruits & Veggies drop marks the launch of the MNTGE Market storefront for physical apparel.
MNTGE co-founder Nick Adler, also rapper Snoop Dogg’s business partner, shared Decrypt what the startup focused on Web3 natives were the first to build a core community of collectors. With the first physical clothing drop now, MNTGE is expanding with a bigger goal in mind.
“Since we’ve sort of established that community now,” he said, “we really want to be something that can be broad and culturally embraced.”
Adler pointed to Wotherspoon’s status as a vintage enthusiast and tastemaker—someone who has tapped into youth culture and understands that more and more people want unique clothing. It fits the vibe of the NFT culture and unique asset ownership, but it’s also bigger than that.
“We took a little bit of magic out of Sean’s thoughts on Fruits & Veggies, and he played around with that and came up with these jeans,” Adler said. “We were immediately very excited. We knew this was something special, so we built our entire brand campaign around it.”
How MNTGE brings authentic vintage fashion to the metaverse
There is also an NFT component in the jeans. Each has an NFC (Near Field Communication) tag. from Web3 startup IYK sewn in behind the Levi’s label – which itself features a sewn MNTGE logo – which can be scanned with a smartphone. By doing so, the owner can claim a free NFT Ethereum scalable network Polygon.
That NFT can authenticate the MNTGE apparel as the real deal, but also potentially offer exclusive benefits to holders – be it future benefits within the MNTGE ecosystem, or perhaps partnerships that provide token-gated access to events or other privileges offer. Adler cited partnerships with concert festivals as a potential target for the startup.
The perfect go-to-market pair!
Our MNTGE FRUITS & VEGGIES JEANS will be available on April 26th 🗓️
with MNTGE Pass holders get priority access and prizes!!! pic.twitter.com/oXOv4BOyKh
— MNTGE (@mntge_io) Apr 18, 2023
“We want you to walk into music festivals and get playlists. We want you to feel like you have special access or special seating,” he said. “We want artists to think, ‘I’m going to work with MNTGE because they’re thinking about the future, and their products are more of a brand than a merchandise item.'”
MNTGE’s future will be both digital and physical, Adler said, as the startup prepares its next digital fashion show with another designer. It also plans to collaborate with renowned Web3 artists to create patches that can be applied to its customizable digital fashion and is exploring ways to bring its NFT-based apparel into major video games.
“We continue to move with culture and move with technology,” said Adler.
