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NFTs have earned a bad reputation thanks to the NFT bubble of 2021, but they could see a comeback in the metaverse fashion industry. Avatars in virtual worlds need clothing items to stand out, and NFTs can provide scarce and unique wearables that users may not regret buying. Luxury fashion brands are already interested in using NFTs and the metaverse to showcase, sell and archive their products. Many proponents already believe that fashion is the next big thing for NFTs.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are a special type of blockchain token representing ownership over a unique thing (usually digital). However, they are most infamously known for the “expensive JPEGs” for which people paid way too much. NFTs generally derive their value from a combination of scarcity, utility, and aesthetics, though hype often plays a bigger role (until it doesn’t). For scarcity, NFTs never degrade and can never be modified, and their supply is secured by the blockchain smart contract that created them. For utility, NFTs can grant access to private communities, exclusive content, profit-sharing schemes, file download links and other value-added benefits. For aesthetics, artists often mint NFTs of their art and sell them as unique pieces (or create collections of similar-but-unique pieces), which can include images, music, video and 3D objects. OpenSea is the most popular NFT exchange on Ethereum, offering just about every kind of NFT that currently exists. Game/metaverse items often combine all three qualities.
As CoinTelegraph discusses, every metaverse user will need clothing for their avatar. Because NFTs do not degrade or wear down and because their authenticity is easy to verify, there is at least some investment value in scarce luxury brand metaverse wearables. With the ability to not only collect rare brand name items but also to wear them in virtual worlds without fear of damage and potentially enjoy extended benefits of ownership, metaverse items have a unique value proposition for their owners. Metaverse fashion is already here, as Decentraland, one of the first real metaverses to exist, held its first Metaverse Fashion Week in May this year, featuring many luxury brands, which CoinTelegraph covered. While Decentraland’s graphics are far from ideal, the event provided a taste of what future metaverse fashion shows may be like.
Avatar Wearables Are More Useful Than Expensive JPEGs
NFTs that grant wearable metaverse items are still a small market, but one that has attracted the attention of luxury brands and fashion designers worldwide. Unlike collectible JPEGs, metaverse NFTs provide something of value to their owners as wearable items offer a combination of scarcity, utility and aesthetics for their owners, whereas the JPEG collections that drove the NFT bubble of 2021 provide very little utility that is compelling for most people to pay money for. Metaverse wearables also give 3D artists the ability to create their own wearable items and sell them on NFT exchanges (for reasonable prices, hopefully).
Suppose NFTs are ever going to blow into another hype-fueled bubble. In that case, it may focus on metaverse items that provide more tangible utility to their owners, and metaverse fashion checks that box. While plenty of additional sub-sectors could take off, such as drivable vehicles or virtual pets, the common denominators across all metaverse users are avatars and avatar wearables. With the ability to own virtual clothing items with guaranteed scarcity, verifiable authenticity and perfect durability, NFT fashion will likely take a major role in the future of the metaverse.
Sources: CoinTelegraph 1, Decentraland, CoinTelegraph 2
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