Luxury Brand Gucci Collaborates with Bored Ape Creator Yuga Labs for Metaverse Project – Crypto Adoption on the Rise?

Luxury fashion label Gucci is expanding its presence in Web3 and the metaverse through a partnership with renowned NFT issuer Yuga Labs.

The collaboration caught the attention of the crypto community as Yuga Labs is the creator of the widely popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). 

Additionally, the team acquired CryptoPunks, Meebits, and 10KTF last year and is currently developing its gamified metaverse, Otherside.

Gucci’s announcement tweet features an image of an Ape hand grasping a bottle with a white label displaying a Koda (an NFT avatar from Otherside) and the text “Gucci Yuga Labs” below it.

The account for Otherside shared the same teaser, saying: 

“In a place where worlds collide, we appear.”

Business of Fashion reported that the two companies signed a multiyear partnership to work within Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse and its 10KTF collection. 

Per Gucci’s senior executive vice president, Robert Tryfus, the deal will provide the fashion label with “an active role in Otherside and 10KTF’s continuing narrative.” 

It could bring the brand closer to Otherside, he added, as both companies continue to work on joining metaverse and fashion. 

10KTF previously worked with Gucci on the Grail collection, enabling owners of certain NFT collections to overlay the outfits onto their avatars.

Meanwhile, just days ago, on March 25, Yuga Labs launched its Second Trip for its Otherside universe as a new “metaverse” experience, following last summer’s First Trip. 

Gucci’s extending meta-path

Gucci is no stranger to the metaverse world. The company partnered with the hugely popular Roblox platform in 2021 to create a virtual world known as the Gucci Garden. 

As reported, in May last year, Gucci started accepting crypto payments across stores in North America. 

This included Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE), and several US dollar-pegged stablecoins.

“Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers,” Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s president and CEO, said at the time.

Then in August, crypto payments processor BitPay announced support for ApeCoin (APE) and Euro Coin (EUROC), and Gucci became the first merchant to accept APE through BitPay. 

Yuga Labs is a contributor to ApeCoin, a community member of the ApeCoin DAO, and is using ApeCoin as the primary token in its projects.

The luxury brand launched NFT collections, including the “SUPERGUCCI” collection and the “Gucci Grail” collection. 

It also purchased virtual land in The Sandbox (SAND) metaverse to create its “own virtual world.”

Meanwhile, this year’s Metaverse Fashion Week, which starts today, will have a number of major brands participating, including Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Adidas, Coach, and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as digital fashion brands like DressX and The Fabricant. 

Similar to the previous year, the events are set to occur in Decentraland, a virtual reality platform built on the Ethereum blockchain; however, they will now also be accessible on the metaverse platform Spatial and through Over, a decentralized augmented reality (AR) layer that seamlessly overlays virtual assets onto the physical world.

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Learn more: 

– Yuga Labs’ Experimental Collection
– CryptoPunks Becomes Top NFT Collection, Christie’s NFT Expert Says He Will ‘Steward’ the Project

– How Fashion and NFTs Found Themselves in a Beneficial Partnership
– TAG Heuer to Allow Users to Display NFTs on Their Smartwatches

– A Beginner’s Guide to NFTs: What You Should Know
– Top 10 NFT Games To Play (And Earn)