Dolce & Gabbana collaborates with Justin Bieber’s NFT collection inBetweeners – Ledger Insights
The Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) collaborated with inBetweeners NFT for its latest ‘drip’ collection is launched at Open sea. The InBetweeners NFTs were made famous by Justin Bieber using one of the bears as his profile picture.
The D&G drip collection includes 2,000 NFTs featuring digital bears designed by Italian artist GianPiero D’Allesandro. D&G’s NFT partner UNXD is also involved.
Each NFT contains unique variations of one of the 21 inBetweener bear designs that “dripped out” into Dolce & Gabbana clothing. In addition, each NFT can be redeemed in 2023 for one of 21 physical garment designs from D&G.
In 2021, the UNXD luxury market released D&G’s nine-piece genesis collection. Sold together with physical items, the collection generated near 6 million dollars in sales.
The standalone inBetweeners NFT collection consists of 10,777 digital bears on the Ethereum blockchain. Within two months of its release, InBetweeners had generated over $18.6 million in transactions.
NFT celebrities in the spotlight
The success of the InBetweeners is popular attributed to an endorsement by Justin Bieber. Since Bieber had previously worked with NFT creator D’Allesandro, he actively promoted the digital bears on his online platforms. His present Twitter profile picture has the NFTs, and he has shown his public support for the project through posts on Instagram. After his accession, there was a rapid increase in transactions for the NFT collection.
However, celebrity NFT endorsements are becoming riskier, with Justin Bieber being one of the named celebrities sued in a lawsuit against Yuga Labs, the company behind the Board Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Yuga Labs framed the lawsuit as “opportunistic and parasitic.”
Unlike the inBetweeners, BAYC was a cultural phenomenon that captured the imagination of the crypto community from the start. Early success preceded celebrity endorsements, and its popularity resulted in a deal with music promoter Guy Oseary. From there, celebrity interest followed.
Arguably, the BAYC route is more sustainable. Would the popularity of inBetweeners decline if Bieber changed his profile picture? On the other hand, deals like the one with D&G help make the NFT collection less dependent on a single high-profile endorsement.
