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Gucci teams up with Bored Ape's Yuga Labs to bring luxury fashion to the metaverse

Chiba, Japan - March 24, 2019: View of  Gucci front store, an Italian luxury brand of fashion and leather goods, at Narita International Airport, Chiba, Japan.
Gucci has formed a partnership to sell limited edition silver jewellery linked to NFTs. Photo: Getty (Sitthipong Pengjan via Getty Images)

Italian fashion house Gucci has entered into a partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs to produce a luxury fashion crossover into the metaverse.

The partnership will see web3 content creator Yuga Labs team up with Gucci to create physical pieces of jewellery which are connected to NFTs that will exist within the BAYC associated 'Otherside' metaverse.

The first piece will be the KodaPendant; it's a solid silver pendant that relates to Yuga Labs’ new alien-themed metaverse game 'Otherside'.

The Otherside contains a mysterious alien species known as 'Koda', and the new Gucci/ Yuga Labs created pendant is an image of one of these virtual creatures.

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Read more: 'Dressing digitally' pins hope on blockchain to clean up fashion's carbon footprint

Each physical piece of jewellery is connected to an NFT, that will unlock numerous perks for the owner within the game.

A total of 3,333 KodaPendants NFTs will be offered for sale starting on Thursday, April 6, and at no extra charge, each NFT holder will be able to claim the connected piece of physical jewellery from Gucci later in the year.

The pendant will bear the inscription "GG," which is gamer slang for "good game," and will also have a unique edition number engraved on the reverse side.

The physical pieces of jewellery will be posted to residents of specific countries only; including the US, Canada, the UK, the majority of EU nations, as well some the Gulf states, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

NFT holders resident in African, Central American, and in South American countries will not receive the physical pendant.

In the long-term, the partnership between Gucci and Yuga Labs aims to explore the intersection of fashion and entertainment within the metaverse, and "blur the boundaries between the physical and digital", according to a recent tweet from the luxury brand.

Gucci and metaverse fashion

Gucci has ventured into the web3 space before. In February 2022, the brand acquired a quantity of land in the metaverse game, The Sandbox, with the intention of exploring and hosting virtual fashion experiences.

In June 2021 Gucci invested $25,000 in native tokens from the NFT and crypto-art marketplace SuperRare, enabling the company to take part in the decentralised autonomous organisation and establish a presence on a digital art platform.

cryptocurrency Ethereum is seen next to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of Yuga Labs
Yuga Labs "Bored Ape Yacht Club" has a track record in digital fine art. Illustration: Florence Lo/Reuters (Florence Lo / reuters)

What is Bored Ape Yacht Club and its parent company Yuga Labs?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of non-fungible tokens launched in April 2021 by Yuga Labs.

The collection consists of 10,000 unique digital artworks, each featuring a distinct and artistically designed cartoon ape with various traits, accessories, and backgrounds.

Each Bored Ape NFT serves as a membership token, granting its holder access to an online community and various benefits, such as virtual events and parties, airdrops, and other digital assets.

Read more: Bored Ape Bar: Inside the $100,000 membership exclusive NFT club in London

The Bored Ape Yacht Club has garnered significant attention and attracted high-profile collectors and celebrities, leading to substantial increases in the value of these NFTs, however, after the succession of crypto collapses in 2022 the value of each BAYC NFT plummeted.

BAYC is still an influential part of the NFT and crypto-art landscape, inspiring other NFT projects and playing a significant role in popularising the concept of NFTs as digital collectibles and status symbols.

Each BAYC NFT is deployed on the Ethereum (ETH-USD) blockchain.

Watch: 'Dressing digitally' pins hope on blockchain to clean up fashion's carbon footprint | The Crypto Mile

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