Gucci is teaming up with the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club

Gucci strengthens its ties with web3.

On Monday, the luxury brand announced a multi-year partnership with Yuga Labs, the web3 company behind several notable NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits and the NFT narrative project 10KTF. It also launches Otherside, a Bored Ape-themed virtual world and game.

The agreement is designed to expand the interaction between each company’s communities “by exploring the intersection of fashion and entertainment in the Metaverse,” according to the release.

“We are pleased to announce this multi-faceted partnership with Yuga Labs, a leader and creative pioneer in web3,” said Robert Trifus, Gucci’s senior executive vice president of corporate and brand strategy and executive director of Gucci Vault & Metaverse Ventures, in a statement. . “This will give us an active role in the continuation of the Otherside and 10KTF narrative, which will unfold in various forms.”

Last year, Gucci collaborated with 10KTF on the Gucci Grail project, which saw 10KTF “digital master” Wagmi-san create clothing and accessories used to personalize NFTs, based on designs by Gucci’s then-creative director Alessandro Michele.

“We look forward to demonstrating how this partnership extends to the endless possibilities at Otherside,” Michael Fige, chief creative officer of Yuga Labs, said in the release.

Gucci’s participation in Otherside is set to begin this week.

Tryfus hinted at the news on stage last week while speaking on The BoF Professional Summit: A Tipping Point in Fashion Technology. He noted that Gucci still sees web3 as a long-term opportunity to build community, encourage customer loyalty and generate revenue. He described the early hype around NFTs as a “wild west” period and sees the market’s fall from the highs in late 2021 as a “correction”. It’s in a smarter place now, he added, and Gucci will leverage the expertise of creative people through strategic partnerships.

Yuga Labs was founded in 2021 and created the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which has grown into one of the most successful NFT projects. He later acquired the rights to CryptoPunks, Meebits and 10KTF. Last March, it raised $450 million at a $4 billion valuation.