MNTGE debuts Token-enabled vintage jeans with the “Fruits & Veggies” Drop

Digital fashion startup MNTGE launched its first access pass December last year, and then launched its first digital clothing drop from designer Sean Wotherspoon in February. But now it goes physical with this week’s drop of upcycled vintage jeans linked to NFTs.

The Fruits & Veggies jeans drop, which begins on Wednesday, will see MNTGE (pronounced “Mintage”) release just 100 pairs of vintage Levi’s denim jeans that were fitted with embroidered designs by Sean Wotherspoon. The MNTGE co-founder has previously designed clothing for brands such as Nike and Adidas, and owns a popular streetwear store.

Each of the 100 total pairs, spanning a range of sizes, will sell for $200 to MNTGE Pass holders, or $250 to non-holders when the public sale begins tomorrow after the pass holder window. The fruits and vegetables mark the launch of the MNTGE Market physical clothing storefront.

A look at the MNTGE Fruits & Veggies jeans. Image: MNTGE

MNTGE co-founder Nick Adler, also rapper Snoop Dogg’s business partner, said Decrypt as the start-up targeted Web3 natives first to build a core community of collectors. With the debut of physical apparel now, MNTGE is expanding with a bigger goal in mind.

“As we’ve now established that community,” he said, “we really want to be something that can be broad and embraced culturally.”

Adler pointed to Wotherspoon’s status as a vintage enthusiast and tastemaker – someone who has tapped into youth culture and understands that more and more people want unique clothes. It fits the vibe of NFT culture and unique ownership, but is bigger than that too.

“We took some magic from Sean’s thoughts around Fruits and Vegetables and he played with that and came up with this denim,” Adler said. – We were very excited right away. We knew this was something special, so we built our whole brand campaign around it.”

There is an NFT component to the jeans as well. Each has an NFC (near-field communication) tag from Web3 startup IYK sewn in behind the Levi’s tag – which itself has a MNTGE logo stitched on top – which can be scanned with a smartphone. By doing so, the owner can claim a free NFT stamped on it Ethereum scaling network Polygon.

That NFT can authenticate the MNTGE apparel as the real deal, but also potentially provide exclusive benefits to holders – whether that’s future benefits within the MNTGE ecosystem, or perhaps partnerships that provide token-gated access to events or other privileges. Adler mentioned concert festival partnerships as a potential target for the startup.

“We want you to go to music festivals and get playlists. We want you to feel like you have special access or special seating,” he said. “We want artists to think, ‘I’m going to work with MNTGE because they’re thinking about the future, and their products are more like a brand in as opposed to a commodity.”

MNTGE’s future will be both digital and physical, Adler said, as the startup prepares its next digital fashion drop with another designer. It also plans to work with well-known Web3 artists to create patches that can be attached to the customizable digital fashion, and is exploring ways to bring NFT-based clothing into major video games.

“We continue to move with culture and move with technology,” Adler said.