Not to be left behind by other apparel firms, Gap jumped into the meta-clothing pool on January 12, partnering with a New York City artist.
The exclusive NFT collaboration — the clothing giant’s first NFT — is a limited-edition digital collection built on the Tezos blockchain in association with NYC-based artist Brandon Sines, aka Frank Ape. Sines created collectible digital cards featuring his creatures sporting Gap’s iconic logo. “The gamified experience encourages customers to collect iconic Gap hoodie digital art at the Common and Rare levels to unlock the opportunity to purchase the Epic (and) limited edition digital art by Brandon Sines and a physical Gap x Frank Ape by Sines hoodie,” Gap noted in a statement.
These digital collectibles actually come in four tiers based on pricing and availability: Common, Rare, Epic, and One of a Kind (sic). The first level, Common, began at an accessible price point — two tez or about $8 — and Rare for 6 tez, or around $25 each. With these now sold out at gap.com/nft/, these NFTs are available at objkt.com’s secondary market. Common cards are now available for anywhere from one to three tez ($4 to $12) and Rare cards for anywhere from 30 to 80 tez ($120 to $320).
The Epic level dropped on January 19 and is currently available for 100 tez ($415.00). Collectors also can access the Epic level by combining four Common and two Rare NFTs from the same series to fuse the six NFTs into a special NFT that qualifies buyers for an Epic NFT as well as IRL access to merch designed by digital artists like Sine. In turn, Frank Ape gets access to Gap’s massive market base.
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“With this partnership with Gap, the creative cycle has come full circle as it allows me to express the beautiful messages of Frank Ape while collaborating with one of the most classic brands in history,” Sines said in a statement. “I cannot wait to share the physical and digital pieces we’ve been working on with Gap and Frank fans worldwide.”
Though this sudden explosion of art launched by big brands helps to fund artists and make creative work accessible, selling online work like NFTs with cryptocurrency has spurred criticism for these firms ignoring the super high emissions required to mine digital currency. It’s for this reason that Gap chose to partner with Tezos. The blockchain firm uses a more energy-efficient approach to secure its network, operating with less energy consumption and a lower carbon footprint.
This will be important for public relations going forward. While this collaboration represents Gap’s first push into the NFT space, it almost certainly won’t be its last. During this initial drop, the textile giant “plans to learn more about how their customers want to engage in a digitally-led world.”
At 9 a.m. PST on January 24, Gap will also learn who wants to join them on an elite level when the One of a Kind auction kicks off. Seeing as Epic level NFTs began in the hundreds of dollars, One of a Kind buyers can likely expect price levels to begin at a few thousand dollars. Whether it’s physical or digital art, sellers will continue to demand that connoisseurs shell out the dough required to achieve singular status.
