Louis Vuitton just unveiled its latest release for holders of its ’VIA Treasure Trunk’ NFTs. The new drop consists of mini-treasure trunk NFTs that correspond to a limited bag designed by the famous fashion designer Nicolas Ghesquière.
There are only 200 NFTs in total for the price of €6,000 apiece (or around $6,560). The new NFTs and bags are only available to holders of LV’s soulbound Via Treasure Trunk NFT collection, which the luxury French fashion housed released in June for around $43,000 apiece.
The latest NFTs are white and gold with an orange glow surrounding the trunk, while the physical bag features LV’s signature “damier” (checkerboard) motif. The bag was first shown at LV’s Spring/Summer 2024 show in September and has been on display at the new LV store in Paris.
Holders of the new NFTs will be able to claim the Ghesquière bag in March 2024. Also, there appears to be some kind of gamification element with the NFT drop, but LV was light on sharing details.
The drop follows the release of its Speedy 40 NFT bags by Pharrell Williams, a legendary producer, Web3 proponent, and the men’s creative director at LV as well as the Chief Operating Officer at Doodles. Those also came as limited-edition bags, with a price tag of €9,000 (around $9,840) and only 200 available. The physical bags will become available to Treasure Trunk holders in January.
Besides Williams, LV has hired several Web3 experts to advise on its VIA project, including the founder and CEO of Deadfellaz Betty, Web3 fashion collector Seedphrase, and Web3 fashion investor Megan Kaspar.
Worth noting, releasing exclusive high-priced accessories aligns with LV’s traditional marketing strategy. The brand has a new diamond-encrusted bag called the ’Millionaire Speedy Bag’ that costs $1 million and, unsurprisingly, is only available to its top clients.
Luxury Fashion Houses Embrace Web3
Louis Vuitton’s move to sell an exclusive soulbound Treasure Trunk NFT that grant select clients access to limited-edition products is starting to come to fruition. But LV isn’t the only luxury fashion house that’s found its footing in Web3. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve written several stories about top fashion brands releasing NFTs. Here are three recent stories.
First, in October, Diesel partnered with Fossil Group to release NFTs, a VR gaming experience, and a new line of physical watches. People who purchase the timepieces receive an NFT that allows them to access a metaverse experience developed by artists from Artificial Rome.
Next, in July, Gucci teamed up with the famed auction house Christie’s for a generative AI NFT collection. The collection drew inspiration from Gucci’s ’Bamboo 1947,’ a handbag series with bamboo handles. The new NFTs featured work from top digital artists, such as Claire Silver.
Finally, also in July, Dior released a series of limited-edition sneakers that come with NFTs that serve as digital twins. There are only 470 pairs of the ’B33’ sneakers available, and each has an NFC chip in the right foot.
As luxury fashion brands adapt their marketing strategies to Web3, one critical element appears to be producing high-end physical products linked to NFTs. Louis Vuitton took this one step further by making its initial NFT release, VIA, soulbound tokens that cannot be traded or sold. With its latest release, it looks like purchasers of the VIA Treasure Trunk NFTs are starting to be paid off. It will be interesting to see what LV does next in the space.