Luxury fashion house Gucci recently teased a metaverse-oriented partnership with Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company behind the dominant NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, that would blur “the boundaries between the physical and digital.”
That collaboration is now starting to take shape.
On Monday, Yuga announced Otherside: Relics by Gucci, a limited-edition series of physical Gucci products and associated NFTs tied into the lore of Otherside, Yuga’s long-awaited ape-themed metaverse game.
Otherside, which remains largely under wraps, centers around a mysterious species of aliens called “Koda,” and their as-of-yet murky relationship to the titular apes of the BAYC. The game has been previewed by owners of Otherdeeds—NFTs that grant rights to virtual land plots within the game’s virtual landscape—but has yet to fully launch.
The first "Relic" to be released via Yuga’s collaboration with Gucci will be the KodaPendant, an NFT representing both a physical piece of jewelry and a nonfungible token that will unlock numerous perks within the Otherside metaverse. Exactly 3,333 KodaPendants will be made available for sale beginning on Thursday, April 6, at 6:00 pm EST.
They can only be bought with Apecoin, Yuga’s native cryptocurrency, and will each cost 450 APE, or $1,917 at writing.
KodaPendants will only be available to current holders of Koda or Vessel NFTs. 10,000 Koda NFTs were quietly embedded among the 100,000 Otherdeeds released last year, and every Otherdeed holder is entitled to claim a Vessel NFT, which was revealed by Yuga during its reveal last week of Legends of the Mara, an upcoming 2D standalone gaming experience that expands the mythology of the Otherside universe.
In effect, the rule means that KodaPendants will be available for purchase by any Otherdeed holder.
The Koda and Vessel NFTs affiliated with KodaPendants will each be visually updated to sport a virtual version of the jewelry. The KodaPendant will also unlock unique cosmetic options for Otherside avatars, which will launch this summer, according to Yuga.
For no additional cost, holders of KodaPendants will also be able to claim a real, physical piece of jewelry from Gucci later this year. Each KodaPendant NFT will come with one physical KodaPendant, a silver chain adorned with a silver pendant in the shape of a Koda alien, inscribed with “GG,” a shorthand among gamers for “good game.” Each physical KodaPendant will be also inscribed with a unique edition number on the back.
The physical pendants will only be made available via mail to residents of select countries, including the United States, Canada, most European nations, and a select number of Gulf states: Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Notably, no residents of any African, Central American, or South American nation are eligible to receive a pendant, nor are residents of any Asian countries—with the single exception of Japan.
Monday’s announcement is not the first time a high-profile NFT company has collaborated with a luxury fashion giant to create rarified physical goods tied to digital ownership.
Last year, CryptoPunks, which is also owned by Yuga, collaborated with luxury jeweler Tiffany’s to create a limited edition NFT-backed series of 250 gold, ruby, and diamond necklaces, each modeled in the likeness of purchasers’ unique CryptoPunk NFT avatars. Those necklaces, which each cost $51,000, sold out instantly, and skyrocketed Cryptopunk trading volume in the process.