Luxury fashion house Balmain Drops Unicorn sneakers bundled with NFT version

French luxury fashion house Balmain today launched its latest Web3 initiative, dropping a limited run of NFT sneakers based on the Unicorn footwear line that each come with a matching pair of limited-edition real-world shoes.

The Unicorn Phygital Wearable Collection, on sale starting today, consists of 130 Unicorn sneaker NFTs bundled with identical physical counterparts. Five unique sneaker designs debut via the collection’s Unicorn Bundles, each priced between $1,595 and $2,095, payable in either traditional currency or ETH. The sale is now live.

The collection’s Ethereum NFTs were created in partnership with Space Runners, a digital fashion company backed by Pantera, Polychain, Jump Capital and Animoca Brands’ Yat Siuamong other investors.

“As the physical and digital continue to merge, Balmain is dedicated to constantly exploring new avenues that help add new recruits to the highly engaged, diverse and global Balmain army,” Balmain Chief Marketing Officer Txampi Diz said in a statement shared with Decrypt. “This collaboration allows us to introduce this historic house to a wider audience.”

Along with rare physical sneakers, holders of Balmain Unicorn NFTs will be granted certain other benefits, including early access to future Balmain drops and other exclusive Balmain products, plus additional digital wearables for use in online games and metaverse platforms.

For Space Runner’s creative director, Rohan Chhabra, the tangible, more traditional additions are the sugar needed to make the medicine of digital fashion go down with the currently crypto-wary masses.

“Metaverse has become a dirty word. So has the NFT,” Chhabra told Decrypt. “But we need to get Web2 customers and Web 2.5 customers—our largest potential customer base—into this space. This is an introduction for them to come to this world.”

Chhabra is unwavering in his belief that digital wearables will one day dominate luxury fashion, even eclipsing physical clothing in desirability. But he admits that such a reality may be further away than first thought, given the current state of the metaverse and public perceptions of the concept.

“Imagine this: a bunch of guys who don’t know each other go to a bar, where there is no alcohol, no games and no activities. It will very hardvery fast,” Chhabra said of the state of affairs in management open metaverse platforms such as The Sandbox and Decentraland.

While early ventures into the digital realm of leading luxury brands focused mainly on targeting Web3-savvy audiences in crypto-native environments, Chhabra has found out the trials of last year to indicate that to integrate users into a digital existence, companies must work harder to meet customers where they are now. And it’s not the metaverse.

“At this point, [offerings] needs to be far more informal, far more approachable and far more accessible, he said. “It’s baby steps.”

Balmain Unicorn NFTs are not yet compatible with any metaverse gaming platforms. They will eventually be usable in Space Runners’ own closed-loop metaverse, due to launch towards the end of this year. That metaverse will be less focused on experiential gaming and more dedicated to commerce, people familiar with the matter said. Decrypt.

Today’s drop marks just the latest Web3 experiment for Balmain, which over the past year has aggressively pursued partnerships, membership programs and limited editions that incorporate blockchain technology.

“For us, Web3 is like social media 10 years ago or e-commerce 20 years ago,” Balmain CMO Diz told Decrypt in 2022. “We have to test which one [Web3] experiments make sense for us as a luxury house. This must be part of the global marketing strategy of every brand.”

Despite the current bearish environment for metaverse endeavors, the digital fashion industry continues to forge ahead. Last week, the digital fashion house DressX announced a $15 million fundraising to continue designing exclusively virtual garments.