Why Digi-Physical Apparel is Interesting

The first Salt Season has been announced. The collection is based on an original NFT artwork inspired by Ethereum and DeFi, paired 1:1 to a hoodie. Today we’re going to deep dive into the reasoning for choosing streetwear as the first digi-physical Salt Season.

So, Crypto-Collectible Clothing?

See, the modern clothing industry is governed by a mentality of fast fashion. Clothing manufacturers focus on producing large quantities of clothing as quickly and cheaply as possible. The pursuit of individualism has been eclipsed by the age of the “trend”.

The first problem with fast fashion is the damage it does on a social and environmental level as companies require copious amounts of natural resources and cheap labour. The second problem is that the consumer loses their ability to effectively express themselves or create statements through unique fashion items.

When clothing gets into the area of collectibles, there is a whole other set of problems. Fakes, no record of provenance (i.e. where does this item come from?) and market intelligence (i.e. how many are out there?).

Salt Seasons leverages Ethereum’s NFT ecosystem to solve a few of these problems. Mixing NFT’s with collectible clothing and memorabilia we can:

• better capture and hold the value of clothing and memorabilia
• better spotlight the artists that were involved in creation
• provide a better mechanism to verify authenticity and scarcity
• experiment with new valuation dynamics
• create a niche asset class that collectors will be talking about for years to come.

We’re bringing back individualism and introducing a whole new dimension of ownership to fashion.

A Platform for Niche Artists & Communities

In the last few years we have seen developments like HypeBeast.com create a market for indie artists to amass followers. The market has been growing at a rapid pace and now more closets are filled with clothing purchased from online-only brands than ever before. Each brand carving out their niche and developing a high customer loyalty and interest and creating success from higher quality, smaller production batches.

Salt Seasons takes this a step further. Each season will produce a collection of original and unique prints which are created by artists and illustrators specifically for that Salt Season. The physical item will be made to order only when the NFT is redeemed. Once a collection has been produced, the original design will no longer feature in future seasons or be otherwise available.

They’re Provably Scarce

There will be a limited number NFT’s, each redeemable 1:1 for a physical piece. The total number of tokens issued may vary but will be verifiable on the Ethereum blockchain. Physical items will be uniquely numbered to match their associated digital versions. Importantly, the total issuance of each collection will be public knowledge before the token can be purchased.

They’re Recreating Memorabilia

One of the most consistently successful categories of collectibles in the physical world has always been memorabilia — which are objects valued for their connection with historical events, culture, or entertainment. Sports, cultural icons and political memorabilia. Considering where the world is heading, with government disapproval ratings skyrocketing around the world. People’s trust and affinity is being shifted to private companies and public protocols at a higher rate than ever before. Governments are dwindling and nation states are crumbling. Our cultural identity is going digital, protocols are the new politicians and projects like Salt & Satoshi are the marketing departments of open source software, creating collectible memorabilia so that in 20 or 100 years time a Bitcoin Salt Season collectible could equate to a now-$25 000 Cox & Roosevelt Pinback.

They’re Physical & Digital

Purchasing the digital collectible means that you are purchasing your right to claim the unique physical clothing piece that has been designed for that art piece. The physical pieces are made only when the NFT is redeemed. The NFT can only be redeemed once. You can use each piece as you wish. Safeguard both as an investment, sell the NFT and keep the shirt or vice versa. It’s really up to you.

We Are Exploring New Valuation Dynamics

We can already reference a long history which points to the success of physical collectibles as a speculative asset and store of value. Collectible card games (CCGs), sneakers, toy cars and memorabilia are examples which can all be investable when certain criteria are met.

More recently we have seen massive success in the digital collectible space with the boom of blockchain based art and CCGs and even non-blockchain based, digital CCGs like Hearthstone.

There are few examples where the digital collectible is paired with a physical representation or counterpart. Salt Seasons is will be an experiment in the valuation dynamics of these items. How will the value of an NFT be affected if the physical item has been redeemed? Or if the physical piece and digital piece belong to different owners?

We hope to learn more about this dynamic with Salt Seasons. We’re excited about shaking up the NFT, clothing and collectible scene and we hope you are too.