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The world of crypto is known as much for its crashes as its trends. Ripple, CryptoKitties, and shady ICOs — all have come and gone like so many virtual bubbles. But non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have gone mainstream. In part it was stories like the red pixel priced at $900,000 that propelled them to the spotlight, leading many to view NFTs as nothing more than aggrandized money laundering. But this trend-based, spectacle-driven reality has plenty in common with the traditional fashion world, which shares many of the same phantom attributes. Beyond the hype, when it comes to sustainability and scalability, NFTs could seriously reduce the waste of real-world fast fashion, all while creating a new way for people to pay too much money for sneakers.

NFT fashion is in its infancy compared to NFT art, which has already been auctioned for millions of dollars at Christie’s. The crypto fashion that does exist leans on a couple of factors, the first being its connection to gaming, the second being COVID. For people who’ve spent large portions of their lives playing video games online, there’s little distinction between buying a skin in Fortnite and buying an NFT jacket that’s only wearable in AR. And while most people still crave the tactility of real clothes, since COVID, paying hard cash for a pair of virtual shoes has become a much easier sell. Even before COVID, many people dressed up exclusively for TikTok or Instagram, a trend that NFTs are poised to dramatically streamline.

We spoke to 13 founders, designers, futurists, and programmers to ask what we can expect from the coming decade of non-fungible fashion. Read the full story by downloading from the link below.

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