Streetwear pioneer Jeff Staple and pseudonymous NFT entrepreneur gmoney hosted an event during Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday showcasing the collaboration between their respective Web3 projects – gmoney’s crypto-native luxury house 9dcc and Staple’s token-gated collaboration lab Stapleverse.
Just 12 hours before the event’s doors opened, the duo said they’ve come up with their unique new feature: NFT-based signatures for what Jeff calls the “pigeon shit baseball cap” — a nod to his Staple Pigeon menswear line.
The limited edition 9dcc x Stapleverse collaboration includes a total of 270 baseball caps, 200 of which are on sale today. Each retails for $295 and is represented by an Ethereum NFT, which can be redeemed at any time to claim the physical hat. And it can be digitally signed by gmoney or Staples if you meet them in person.
Remaining limited edition @9dccxyz x @stapleverse luxury baseball caps are available for purchase by the general public. These are available at https://t.co/RLzLx6UnrT.
Limited quantities available.
Each cap received physically and claimed the COA to a wallet,… pic.twitter.com/3WHyY7WiGP
— 9dcc (@9dccxyz) Jun 21, 2023
“This is insane,” said gmoney Decrypt. “Jeff and I can scan any product. We tap your hat, sign our phone and you get a signature NFT that you attach to your hat.
Gmoney compared it to a POAP, or Proof of Attendance Protocol, a type of NFT often issued as a memento or “ticket slip” for both online and real-world events.
“The signature shows that you met one of us,” he explained. “It’s an advanced POAP and you can collect our signatures. It’s like a scavenger hunt.”
this module is now live on @9dccxyz’s IT-01 and IT-03 products. if you own any of these products and are at Paris Fashion Week make sure you get it signed by @gmoneyNFT & @jeffstaple pic.twitter.com/NFXJcPkbAa
— IYK ✶ (@iyk_app) Jun 21, 2023
The duo said they implemented the technology minutes before the interview.
“That’s the amazing thing about Web3—iIt’s lightning fast compared to my world,” Staple said Decryptreferring to the notorious slowness of the fashion industry.
“For example, at the moment I am developing the holiday 2024 line and it is locked. You can’t change it,” he continued. “But the NFT culture changes daily. You can iterate. We just repeated an hour ago.
Staple, who founded his eponymous company Staple in 1997, is excited about the future of Web3 technology and fashion. As things stand, he said, “when a store you’ve never heard of places an order, you should be able to verify whether they’re legit or not.”
“Check their credit score with Wells Fargo, see what their Dun & Bradstreet rating is, all that financial shit — or else you’ll ship an order not knowing if you’re going to get paid or not,” Staple continued. “That takes a month, while crypto would streamline that. You have a wallet, you send me crypto and I send you the order.
Staple believes that this evolution in the traditional fashion industry is not happening fast enough. “This is a Titanic of an industry,” he joked. “If I said ‘Staple only accepts ETH’ we would only have one account left.”
Jeff Staple (left) and gmoney at the Paris Fashion Week event. Image: decrypt
Asked how long it would take the fashion world to catch up crypto-wise, gmoney said, “Regulatory politics make me say 10 years.” Recent events have fueled his pessimism about the current financial system.
“Right after the SEC sued pretty much every crypto company, now all of a sudden all the big players like BlackRock, Deutsche Bank – are all filing to get into the space,” he said. “How can you not say, ‘This seems very coordinated’?”
Staple leaned forward and shared his cynicism about the forces standing in the way of mainstream cryptocurrency adoption.
“I opened my bank account with First Republic Bank because they were crypto-friendly. They collapsed. And then suddenly the next day, JPMorgan Chase, one of the oldest financial institutions in the world, sends me an email saying, “Thank you for banking with us. We’re your bank now.’ Wow. Illuminati literally went in and destroyed this. How convenient, JPMorgan.”
Nevertheless, Staples said, he remains in the Web3 and crypto space.
“I honestly would, even if ETH collapsed,” he said. “It’s about community involvement. I will continue to make digital versions of what I am making in the physical world.”
This Paris Fashion Week, more than any other in history, was all about the two letters that make every industry vibrate: AI. But Staple and gmoney are calm on this front.
Why Gmoney buys blue checks from Twitter for top supporters of NFT brand 9dcc: ‘I like to fuck around and find out’
“The biggest myth about AI is that it’s going to take everyone’s jobs,” gmoney said. “It’s not, as long as you know how to use it.”
Staple was similarly unperturbed by the alleged AI threat: It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before. “I am a rag salesman. I am Al Bundy sell shoes. For me, this is just a new medium,” he said.
“I think AI can do about 80% of the work. But that last 20% is everything,” Staples added. “It’s like having a Michelin-starred chef give you the exact ingredients, dimensions, everything you need to make a dish – you still need magic in your fingers to put it together. You need that je ne sais quoisince we are in Paris.”