From panties to flip-flops, brands try to cash in on NFTs

After the ecommerce boom in the pandemic, brands from different segments are starting to bet on an even more technological market: the sale of digital product records on the internet — or NFTs, for those initiated in the metaverse.

Nivea, Nike, and the Brazilian Pantys, with absorbent panties, and Alpargatas, owner of Havaianas, are some of the well-known names in the public that have launched digital arts in this format in recent months.

Alpargatas was one of the first in Brazil, in May of last year. The first auction was for the gif named Happy Feet, which sold for R$5,600 at the time. Part of the profit was donated to donations.

Nivea entered the market in December 2021 with an art called “The Value of Touch” on the Polygon Scan platform.

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, create signatures that allow you to single out what has become commonplace and easily reproducible on the internet. This is how memes, tweets and pieces of art that don’t physically exist are being traded for millions of dollars on specialized platforms.

For this purpose, the same technology as cryptocurrencies is used: the blockchain, a kind of decentralized transaction verification system independent of central banks. It is possible to compare it to a global ledger that records information — all public, although anonymous, since each user is identified through a code. Your transaction takes place on a decentralized internet network called ethereum (from the cryptocurrency ether).

The market is billionaire. Until this Tuesday (1st), NFTs moved almost US$ 20.876 billion, of which about US$ 2.310 billion were in the art sector, according to data from the Non Fungible platform.

Once purchased, it is possible to resell the NFT, but not the work, which makes it impossible for the buyer to market the art on music platforms and in the physical world.

In view of this, it is common to ask why, then, to buy the crypto asset. The answer lies especially in resale: as it is irreplaceable and exclusive, the bet is that this record will appreciate in value in the future.

Emily Ewell and her niece, Maria Eduarda Camargo, decided to make the bet. This Monday (31), Pantys, their brand, released 33 artworks including photos, videos and gifs in NFT. They are images linked to the universe in which they work, from absorbent panties to menstruation. Each purchase will have part of your profit earmarked for donations.

The pieces are sold in a kind of auction on the OpenSea platform, and the minimum value is US$ 40.66 (R$ 215.29), or 0.015 ether.

Ewell, who is American, went to visit her family in the United States in December of last year and was surprised by the popularity of the theme there.

“As a businesswoman I was super interested,” she says. “At Pantys we’ve always looked at digital content as if it were a product. Customers consume it between purchases and sometimes it even brings more value on a daily basis than buying the panties, which will last two to three years old.”

This time, he explains, digital content would really come at a price. And it aligns with part of the brand’s positioning, which sells the idea of ​​modernity, youth, technology.

“It’s a very masculine space for cryptocurrencies and technology. The female community is smaller,” says Ewell. “I’m hoping we can raise this flag in the future.”

For the finance professor at ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing) Alexandre Ripamonti, the entry of brands into the metaverse is a trend for 2022. “Imagine that you know it’s going to be sunny. You have to be prepared to go to the beach “, it says.

In addition to the NFT appreciation, the brand can also have gains — or losses — if it chooses to preserve cryptocurrencies in the transaction.

In addition to the eventual appreciation of the assets, the expert says that the metaverse is yet another place to expand the brand’s position. “Being present there is being present in something that will connect your brand to innovation, to the young audience, to the digital market”, he says.

Despite being an apparently promising universe, the mind of the entrepreneur who is going to venture into the NFTs must be that of a very high risk investor.

For some months now, experts have been warning of the formation of a bubble in the crypto market. And decentralization, its trump card, is also its Achilles heel: there are no regulatory bodies to protect investor money.

Another problem was faced by Pantys: the criticism of the environmental impact of NFTs, since the computational structure required by the technology demands a significant amount of energy.

A tweet that questioned the brand of panties on this point passed 15,000 likes on Wednesday afternoon (2).

There are different sources of information, but a 2018 study published in Nature argued that generating $1 worth of cryptocurrencies takes more energy than achieving the same value in gold and aluminum, for example.

The fact that Pantys used a carbon offset tool for NFTs (Aerial) did not dampen tempers. “Should we have said that we launched zero carbon NFT and put that in the title?”, asked Ewell. The brand already has a zero carbon footprint in its other products.

“I always think that we have to do things more consciously, bring this role of education”, she says. “But I think it’s like Instagram ten years ago. Every social network, technology, emits carbon, needs to have a server structure.”