The retail-focused metaverse platform Highstreet has partnered with artist and fashion entrepreneur Jonathan Koon to launch the Mostly Heard Rarely Seen 8-Bit NFT drop.
The partners want to turn retail shopping into a metaverse onboarding experience, offering a blend of physical and digital clothing, often known as phygital products.
Koon is an American designer who became a self-made millionaire at the age of 16, and founder of the fashion brand Mostly Heard Rarely Seen 8-Bit.
The first-of-its-kind project will allow Mostly Heard Rarely Seen 8-Bit shoppers redeem NFTs by scanning QR codes sewn into the physical garment.
Koon and Highstreet believe that the collaboration could help onboard millions into Web3 by seamlessly “guiding the crypto-unfamiliar customer base of the world’s leading fashion retailers into the metaverse.”
“With this launch, we aim to welcome more traditional, non-blockchain consumers to the web3 world,” said Highstreet co-founder Jenny Guo. “To allow consumers to experience the energy and new possibilities in web3 culture, without needing to already possess the complex knowledge of navigating web3 tech.”
Guo says the onboarding process involves digitally cloning “the shopper along with their purchased 8-Bit apparel into the Highstreet metaverse.”
Users will then be rewarded with the company’s $HIGH token upon joining the Highstreet metaverse to with some spending money for their new Web3 experiences. They’ll also be offered an opportunity to establish permanent ownership of the apparel acquired during the drop by minting into NFTs, giving them more uses for the digital products, including selling them on NFT trading portals like OpenSea and LooksRare.
Guo thinks the partnership can turn real-life retail stores into avenues that lead to the Highstreet metaverse. “Every step of the process is based on something we all already do: buying physical products we already love,” Guo added.
Koon says the partnership makes a lot of sense for his company, as his target market is tech-savvy younger people who already have an intense interest in Web3 and the metaverse.
“Just like how Supreme is a lifestyle brand that represents the perspective of a skateboarder from downtown New York; 8-Bit is a lifestyle brand that represents the perspective of a modern-day tech kid,” Koon says.
The 8-bit “phygital’ experience will launch in several leading department stores across the world, including Sak’s 5th Ave, Neiman Marcus, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, and Beymen, among others.
Koon and Highstreet have priced the NFT-encoded apparel between $120 – $275 and are already planning more limited edition collaborations with leading players in the industry.
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