Unlocking Digital Luxury With mmERCH, Seedphrase & Swarovski

0:19 well obviously a lot of Partners and moving parts to this collaboration merch seed phrase Swarovski Christies how did it come together well well it sort of all started back in April when seed phrase came for the merch Genesis s launch event during nft NC and we you know started having casual discussions about doing something together so it really started with seed phrase and merch and then throughout the past few months all of these incredible

0:50 collaborators have come into the picture so I'm really proud of how merch has served as the architect of this drop to really be the conduit Between Worlds between web 3 and between traditional fashion and traditional art so we've commissioned Claire silver to do all the artwork for the drop we've also brought in Swarovski and we're here at the Swarovski store today to do these incredible cordin for 22 of the hoodies and we have also partnered with

1:18 Christies on a drop on a sale for five Lots which will be on christies.com yeah so like you know we have been you know from some time now since the Genesis drop you know we had been filling it out for you know a little while and you know after such a successful you know launch during nft NYC where I also contributed my you know full set of Auto glyphs you know we we got together and we

1:45 basically you know spoke about you know potentially doing like a drop together and I think you know it very much you know aligned with both of our Brands as well you know like obviously seed phrase is a very like high-end iconic you know luxury brand and you know obviously that is you know merch as well you know merch is very much like positioned to be highend in luxury and I I really love you know what merch is doing

2:10 you know with their generative process you know the one of one pieces you know it just made so much sense to you know tie the the pallet of the punk into you know Infuse it into drop two and to really like you know get that you know together and you to really create like a really like special and memorable moment and yeah we're just we're super excited and we we really can't wait to really show everyone what we've been

2:35 working on for the last six months I love it well we've got three Crypt punks you know represented here I know that the the crypto Community is is is a big part of the ethos of this drop and obviously the seven trait is the inspiration for many of the different traits and parts does talk a little bit about like how you know you kind of Incorporated the seven tra Punk and the crypto Punk community ethos into drop

3:01 two so I mean the punk seed phrase and his punk are not only are collaborators for this drop but the punk is the muse so we really started with the punk as being not only so emblematic of seed phrases brand but also just such an iconic figure for the space in general specifically for the Crypt Punk community and I'm really proud with how we've been able to extract and Abstract the punk using sort of its base you know

3:31 color palette the seven traits but created a collection that feels both cohesive and super sort of honors the punk while also being you know open to the punk community and not being so too closely tied to one output so it was great for us to be able to use seed phases punk as inspiration and then also use it as an abil you know a way to engage the larger Punk community for this drop yeah no it makes total sense

4:02 and I know that there are there some of the pieces have the Swarovski diamonds right some of those are being auctioned with Christies and in others it's like a little bit more gamified right like people don't know if they're going to reveal that one tell us a little bit about just how that works so as seed phase was mentioning there's we started with the silhouette of the hoodie we added a seventh trait being the hoodie drawring and when we partnered

4:27 with Swarovski we really wanted to highlight the seventh trait as being you know we wanted to use the seventh trait to highlight the ultra rare outputs so we partnered with Swarovski to create cord ends there's five different designs for the cord ends e each based off different traits of seed phrases Punk so there's the top hat the glasses the cigarette the earring and then the buck teeth the top hat glasses cigarette and earring are all Swarovski Crystals set

4:56 in sterling silver but these buck teeth outputs Swarovski created diamonds hands set in 14 karat white gold so there's two different buck teeth outputs of the 22 total hoodies that feature Swarovski cordin five of the 22 so one of each of the five designs is going to be auction to Christies and then the other 17 outputs including the other Diamond one will be in our public mint I think like the exciting part about that as well is

5:23 like it becomes like almost like a lucky dip right you know when you're buying a a hoodie in the public auction sale you know you don't know what you're going to get you know can potentially land the diamond even which I think's a really important part as well and that's something too that was really exciting to me when I started sort of understanding and and studying the web3 space the nft space and thinking about how we can apply fashion and make some

5:48 you know position a brand position a project that was very felt very authentic to the space and the mechanics that are you know familiar and and and pretty common in the web 3 space to me are so nuanced and interesting when you think about fashion so if you think about buying a product but not knowing what output you get until it appears in your wallet is so fresh and exciting to me when you're applying that logic to to

6:15 garments so I love that gamified element to our drops and that was something that was present in our first drop with you know different Rarity traits such as the material some were French terry some were Kashmir and is something that I would say is even more relevant for this draw no great points great points let's talk also about CLA Silver's involvement I know that there are digital versions of each of the hoodies and you got Claire involved I

6:41 know Danny I know you're a big AI art collector yourself and obviously a lot of respect for cla's artwork so how did that all come together and what sort what do you think she brought to the project yeah look like you know I I think you know as you mentioned you know AI art has been a big focus of mine you know with my collecting and you know when we were discussing you know who we wanted to you know to do this artwork

7:02 for us you know we instantly thought like another punk needs to be able to do this right like you know to stay on theme it had to be a punk you know I already was like collecting a lot of like AI work I respect CL deeply I think she's like a incredible artist and so it it was really like an in easy decision for us and you know like with with the outputs that she has made you

7:25 know obviously you have the one of ones that come with the the Christy's auctions and you know I I think she did a wonderful job you know she really showed her like true like you know skills with AI and I think like they really came together like beautifully so Claire for this drop as seed phrase was saying it was really important for us to work with another with an artist that's a notable Punk and someone that's you know has been in

7:52 the punk community so Claire was a natural fit she produced six one of one actually video work for us each there's five that are tied to each lot at Christie there's also an additional oneofone video work that comes with that is tied to the diamond output in the main mint and then we also commissioned her to do nine addition works so there's nine different styles within the collection of 322 outputs and Claire did one work corresponding to each style however she

8:25 went the extra mile and really made them one of on in the sense that you know all this is a monochromatic hoodie for example so there's five mono seven monochrome hoodies so all monochrome hoodies will get the same work except the figure in that work will be wearing their unique hoodie so they're you know sort of the convergence of one of ones and additions it's really a oneof one of X format and to me what's even sort

8:54 of an added layer of excitement and and what's even more interesting is when I think about it in the context of fashion it really to me begs mention of like fashion editorials or a lookbook and what does a decentralized lookbook look like so if you think about the future of fashion in the web 3 space and you think about the you know pairing of digital and physical objects it's not only someone owning the physical but they own

9:20 the image that it's paired with so this whole decentralized lookbook narrative is something that I think is really interesting and something that I think Claire's body of work particular The Works she created for this drop can really kind of Usher in and and represent this movement towards you know the future of fashion in web 3 yeah absolutely you know part of our mission is bringing this movement from Niche to mainstream and so obviously partnering with the likes of Swarovski and getting

9:46 this space this Tech this movement this culture in front of eyes that it might not normally is is really significant and that's something that we like to see in terms of just being able to bring new people into the space and you know move towards mainstream adoption I'm curious like what have the reactions been from some of the people perhaps in like more in the traditional art excuse me traditional fashion side of things you know who are kind of

10:10 like kind of experiencing web 3 for the first time through this drop I have a number of friends from the traditional fashion and art side who were so supportive that they actually went through all of the sort of roadblocks of setting up a wallet funding a wallet to participate in our first drop and for this drop I have you know our our community has even expanded further because of christe's being on board and having you know traditional

10:37 fashion and art collectors be able to participate through the Christie sale so that's been really exciting to see just you know the natural reaction from our existing community and also people that want to be in it but are like how do I buy these I just want to buy a hoodie so you know my hope is that we expand our footprint to be both inclusive of web 3 but also to to onboard more individuals into the web 3 space and

11:03 doing it through Partners like Swarovski like chrisy is you know kind of the ultimate fit and I think like an important note to make there as well is that you know a lot of these you know Trad art Trad fashion people you know they they don't really resonate you know as much with like digital art for example right so I think like this is a much easier concept for them to actually like comprehend like having a physical

11:26 hoodie that you can wear it's connected through an NFC chip you know it's generative it's oneof one NE Couture I think like that is definitely like a lot more like you know like it's palatable compared to you know trying to buy like an nft right no I love I love that perspective and you know I think I'd love to hear actually each of you sort of respond to this question because I know you come from different backgrounds it's cool to see

11:49 it you know kind of coales into this partnership but like you know what do you sort of see and what do you envision at the intersection of fashion and web 3 going forward yeah so so like I I think you know that the future of fashion and you know web 3 as well I I think you know we are going to see a lot more customization more personalization obviously you know where merch is going now you know I I really do think

12:11 that's a really strong message you know I I really do see you know more and more Brands you know coming into that you know I even predicted you know years ago that I think that in the not too distant future everything physical that you buy in store will always have a digital pair with it as well right so you know naturally the world is going more digital you know we are just waiting for like the hardware to catch

12:34 up you know when AR and VR is a lot more mainstream which it is you know already making big strides in I I think it's just going to be a matter of time like you know when a lot more people are starting to pay attention to this as well it's going to be a very hot Trend and you know I think one of the biggest sort of points of evolution of the merch brand from our Genesis drop

12:55 to where we are today or even pre- Genesis preo to Market was the focus from heavily weighted towards the digital to now heavily weighted towards the physical you know when I initially started having conversations with collectors three years ago and it was the height of the bull market everyone was such digital maxies they were like you don't even need to do a physical and me coming from my background and being so you know tightly tied to Fashion I was insistent

13:23 on there being a physical component to the drop and I'm so happy that I was so insistent on that because fast forward two and a half years you know we didn't launch in the height of the bull market and I feel like the physical component of the merch brand is so important even to individuals that come you know natively from the web 3 space so I would say the future of fashion is definitely a digital physical pairing

13:47 and I would even argue that rather than thinking of digital and physical as two separate verticals you think about them laterally and they really are you know two are two of the same and I think for me too you know the Birch of the future what's really exciting is all of our utility built into the NFC chips of our hoodies so you know previously pre-launch pre- Genesis I would have said that the Redemption of the physical is the end of the product

14:15 Journey whereas today it's really only the beginning of the product Journey we just introduced our wearable wallet which is access through every single NFC chip if you scan the NFC chip it takes you to your unique landing page where a number of of collectors of members of the merch Community rsvpd for tonight's event through their wearable wallet so it's all about you know really approaching fashion as a programmable piece of hardware and continuing to build and introduce new pieces of

14:44 utility into our garments even after the point of redemption love that well I think is there anything that I you know we didn't get a chance to touch on that you still wanted to speak to about the about the collection I'm I'm so excited to actually see this come to life it's like surreal to be here with seed phrase in this sovi store being interviewed you seeing our diamond hoodie it's like it's wild to think you

15:14 know how we've come not only over the past six months but really the past three months so I'm just so excited for our christe sale to go live I'm so excited for hopefully the community to support through bidding through you know we our allow list window opens at 10:00 a.m. October 1st the the Christy sale runs from Wednesday September 25th to Wednesday October 2nd closes at 10: a.m. eastern our allow list window runs from 10: a.m. October 1st to 10:

15:45 a.m. October 2nd so both the Christy sale and the allow list period end at the same time and then public mint opens at 11: a.m. October 2nd so I'm excited I hope everyone not only the punk Community but you know all of the web3 community come and and mint their merch and I can't wait to see these incredible incredible products out in the world it's hoodie season it's always hoodie season yeah it's always hoodie season