Wearable NFTs (or wearable NFTs) is a new fashion that has already entered our lives, and wear to earn is a mechanic with enormous potential and ready to conquer the world.
Concept Wear to earn (W2E)
Imagine that your dress in good things from your favorite brands at an affordable price segment in real life. In virtual reality, you can dress your avatar in digital clothing from a luxury brand, for example, Balenciaga, Gucci, or Dolce & Gabbana, and at the same time, not give up on one digital t-shirt a fortune. And now your avatar is walking around the metaverse in branded clothes and not in the system’s default dress.
Now imagine: you get extra money/bonuses for walking in a virtual space in clothes of a specific brand. How do you like these prospects? Would you already be more willing to purchase these digital clothes?
The NFT industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and the fashion industry is developing along with it. Big brands like Louis Vuitton are beginning to understand how the world works and how they can add value to their products or create experiences for their public using blockchain.
You probably already know the play-to-earn and move-to-earn mechanics, in which players are rewarded with tokens or digital currency for completing some tasks. The more they play and the higher their levels, the more they earn. Players and investors liked the idea of earning money by doing an excellent job.
Now the fashion industry has taken note of this success and is moving to conquer the metaverse with Wear to Earn Fashion. Wear to Earn is the next step after Play to Earn and Move to Earn. After all, with the advent of virtual workspaces and metaverses, self-expression has become the need to dress our avatars to reflect best how we want to look in online games and virtual universes.
AKINGS W2E NFT Collection
One brand that has already introduced the wear to earn mechanics is the premium streetwear brand AKINGS. The brand’s mission has always been to provide its customers with versatile, stylish, innovative streetwear that will make them feel like kings.
The brand experimented and released its AKINGS Fashion NFT collection on May 15, 2022. And it’s not just digital clothing, wearable NFTs. Every time a user dresses their digital avatar in AKINGS Fit and wears it in virtual worlds and online games, the brand will reward you and send you an airdrop of virtual currency.
“It was all about giving back to our community and the people who consistently go out and support the brand beyond a predictable discount or upsell. This NFT answers the question we always ask ourselves: How can we add value to our customers?” said AKINGS COO Brian Leon.
Is there a future for W2E mechanics?
The Wear to Earn system incentivizes customers when they advertise and represent a brand online and in the metaverse through rewards such as digital currency or the opportunity to receive physical products.
Megan Kaspar, one of the founders of Red DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization focused on fashion, believes that the model of wear to earn will eventually become more than play to earn.
In her opinion, the concept of wearing to earn will appeal to a much larger audience, not just gamers. Including mechanics will be able to cover various sectors of digital production since NFT fashion consists of clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, and other items with which gamers can complement their avatars.
The concept of “wear clothes and earn money” sounds attractive enough, but many questions arise due to the lack of actual cases. How expensive will such clothes cost, how will the mechanics be regulated, and will it not turn into bad manners among brands over time?
After all, this mechanic is vaguely reminiscent of bloggers’ work, when brands send out their products for advertising and promotion among the influencer’s audience, paying with goods or even paying extra. But if the number of influencers for advertising is limited, many more potential buyers can wear clothes and receive rewards from the brand.
