Jonathan Coon’s 8-bit brings ‘physical’ fashion to department stores – WWD

Jonathan Koon’s 8-bit streetwear label, mostly heard and rarely seen, is hitting some of the world’s biggest department stores as the “figital” phenomenon kicks off Monday. Each item in the collection includes its physical apparel and NFT version.

The term, an apt portmanteau of “digital” and “physical,” is a convenient way to refer to digital products such as virtual apparel or virtual art and collectibles that come from physical counterparts or vice versa. For Kon, that translates to athleticism and streetwear with a QR code that not only matches the NFT version of the item, but also fast-tracks luxury customers into the virtual world of Highstreet, a retail and gaming-focused metaverse built on blockchain.

The collection will be carried at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Beymen and Bloomingdale’s, among others.

Naturally, given the premium customer, the experience is designed to minimize friction. Simply snap the security tag to reveal a barcode, scan it, and the simple process begins to quickly create an avatar — a real-world user can even use a selfie for a mirrored digital version — and decorate the character with the purchased virtual reality. clothing. Users receive $High tokens, Highstreet’s starting currency, so they can instantly explore the area and buy or sell other things.

If holders want to sell the new NFTs, that process is also simple. It only takes a few steps to sell or sell as a listing on the OpenSea or LooksRare platforms.

When it comes to NFTs, rare issues, so the products are produced in varying quantities between retail partners. The most limited run can fetch the highest price. In this way, the NFTs resemble real-world droplets that have been mixed — so much so that Kuhn likens the initiative to the popular ski brand Supra.

But the goal isn’t just to push the product, according to Kuhn.

In fact, given the difficult production process, it could have charged a premium. Each graphic is produced with custom aluminum molds and a 30-day production time, using hand-filled silicone, industrial heat printing and industrial stamping machines to create physically unique items to reflect the rarity of blockchain. 8-bit shirts start at a few hundred dollars, but can command a much higher price.

Instead, the fashion designer wanted to make the collection accessible, he explained in an interview with WWD. He’s not looking at one-off transactions, but a more ambitious vision of turning brick-and-mortar stores themselves into entry points or portals.

“We thought [luxury customers] entering Web 3.0 in their world,” he said in an exclusive interview with WWD. “Guys, instead of saying, come to Web 3.0, come to our place and forcefully educate you on the platform, we created this QR code system for herbal products. They are truly physical in nature, but we honor what we love in the fashion industry – which is high-end fashion retail in a luxury department store.

Kuhn’s understanding of the premium shopping experience is realized for a number of reasons. Most of the department stores on the partner’s list carried the brand, and in 2013 he opened a luxury store in Soho as his own brick-and-mortar experience. First he turned his attention to crypto. It’s not that Kuhn has completely ignored e-commerce. Farfetch is another retail partner, he said, and will carry the collection online.

But even if customers shop, the item will provide access to Highstreet where they can browse the site, find digital wearables and shop. The latter is the key. Transactions are the lifeblood of the platform.

Backed by investors including Taiwan-based tech giant and Vive VR headset producer HTC, Highstreet itself has ambitious goals to establish a retail-focused metaverse beyond gaming and is in talks to bring brands into the space. Kon 8-bit, for example, sets up a virtual shop there.

On PC desktops and laptops, people can enter the world of High Street, like an MMORPG or massively multiplayer online role-playing game, to complete missions, fight battles, and level up. You can buy goods there. Users looking for shopping or shopping alone are not game, they can access those actions on their phones and tablets for lightweight. VR fans can sideload Highstreet and fully immerse themselves in their headsets.

“We’re one of the very few that do e-commerce plus games and also in VR,” said Jenny Guo, co-founder of HighStreet, “so I think that’s one of our biggest strengths. Of course, the ability to approach a platform in different ways is Metavas’ key promise, but few platforms know how to pull it off.

Highstreet recently put land up for sale, with more on the way, and is exploring a number of potential retail relationships. It’s talking to Shopify, for example, about integrating with the platform.

“We’re really close to Shopify, because a lot of the people who run Shopify these days basically went to college with us. So, you know, we’re all Canadian,” explained High Street founder and CEO Travis Wu. “[It] It gives us a little edge to engage with them. They haven’t participated yet because we’re still figuring out how to build a custom integration port for us.

Highstreet is expanding at a rapid clip, and Jonathan Kuhn’s 8-bit could bring high-net-worth customers into the mix. If it works, if luxury consumers respond to a low-key way to access Metavas by collecting bundles of these NFTs and physical apparel, this model could become the norm for other tech platforms — and department stores.