Imagine owning a hoodie that’s as unique as your fingerprint. Welcome to the world of mmERCH, a new business that offers custom, one-of-a-kind apparel that can be traced through blockchain technology.
Each mmERCH product begins as a piece of generative art that is then minted into an NFT that can be redeemed for physical apparel, an innovative approach conceived by mmERCH founder and CEO Colby Mugrabi that allows for the mass production of custom apparel, a feat Mugrabi says has never been done before.
By embedding a near-field communication (NFC) chip in each hoodie, mmERCH turns clothing into a “wearable wallet” that records the provenance and experiences associated with each item. This novel approach brings a new level of engagement to collectors and fashion enthusiasts who want to record an item’s famous owner or a significant event.
As such, mmERCH is perhaps the ultimate bridge between traditional fashion and web3, and in March 2024 the company raised $6.4 million from investors representing the business, fashion, tech, and crypto industries.
Web3 VC fund Liberty City Ventures led the round, which also saw participation from notable backers including Christie’s Ventures, FlamingoDAO, and leading fashion investment group RedDAO, which also backed The Fabricant, DressX, and gmoney’s on-chain powerhouse 9dcc.
In April 2024, Mugrabi and her team hosted a high-profile pop-up event in New York City that attracted a lot of attention and was attended by fashion icon Ashley Olsen, designer Marc Jacobs, and Diane von Furstenburg.
A month later, mmERCH launched the first token-linked experience for hoodie owners in partnership with contemporary artist Tom Sachs, with mmERCH Genesis Series holders having their first opportunity to capture a real-life experience on blockchain at Sachs’ event, BODEGA 245 “PICASSO” in New York City.
In this Q&A, we sit down with Mugrabi, the visionary behind mmERCH, to learn about the brand’s origins, the strategy behind its successful first launch, and Mugrabi’s thoughts on the future of fashion.
Note: This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
OpenSea: Can you share how you first conceived of mmERCH? What inspired the concept and why did you choose the generative AI hoodie?
Colby Mugrabi: I studied at NYU Gallatin School, majoring in Art History, Fashion, and Art with a minor in Architecture and Design, and after graduation I started a website called Minnie Muse where I created original content about art history, fashion, architecture, and design.
I write articles discussing fashion show collections from the perspective of historical architecture, or comparing painting to industrial design, always with the intention of finding common ground between different creative fields.
In March 2021, when the Beeple sale happened, my husband, an art dealer, started getting a lot of calls about Beeple and NFTs, and I started researching NFTs, the metaverse, and web3.
I quickly realized this was the future of my brand and I spent about five to six months working on ideas, similar to the content I was creating at Minnie Muse, I wanted to honor my passion for fashion and art while staying true to the web3 space.
My first idea was to buy land in the Metaverse and become a web3 native partner to bring in luxury brands, I had early conversations with some brands to partner with, but it was too early for most.
In August 2021, I discovered Art Blocks and started learning about generative art, and I immediately thought, “Why isn’t anyone applying generative design processes to physical fashion products?”
After further researching this idea, I realized that a generative approach to product design could create one-of-a-kind products at scale that had never been possible in a physical space, and we were effectively creating a new fashion category called “New Haute Couture.”
It combines the exclusivity of haute couture, the speed and scale of fast fashion, and the benefits of web3. Each mmERCH product starts as an NFT that can be traded and redeemed for both physical versions of the design and virtual assets.
OpenSea: How do you see the recent Drop trend? What are your predictions for the future?
Colby Mugrabi: Our first collection was 960 individual hoodies, we took a silhouette and broke it down into design features, there are six design features on the hoodie: the hood, the body, the pockets, each sleeve, and the straps (wristband and waistband).
We curate attribute inputs including color, pattern, and material, then assign rarity values, resulting in over 732 million unique possible combinations with six design features and 30 attribute inputs.
We selected the first 960 units for this sale, we wanted a large enough quantity to create buzz and build a community, but not so large that it would hinder physical production, we removed 40 outputs for seed giveaways, the final quantity was 960 units.
For this release, we inventoried two sizes of each output, and going forward, only physical pieces redeemed within the redemption window will be cut and assembled, allowing for a zero finished stock model and a wider range of sizes.
OpenSea: Starting with hoodies, the size options will be more flexible. Will this affect your decision?
Colby Mugrabi: Of course, I wanted a unisex product that was relevant to the web3 space, and the hoodie fits that idea, and the size restrictions allow it to reach a wide range of potential collectors.
OpenSea: Your hoodies remind me of Cotopaxi’s custom recycled fabrics, how important are sustainability, uniqueness, and NFC chips to your brand and business?
Colby Mugrabi: Very importantly, our manufacturing process is sustainable in nature, we don’t produce large quantities of inventory, but the core driver is the one-of-a-kind nature and uniqueness, which relates to provenance, rarity and collectability, which is relevant both in the web3 and traditional fashion space.
OpenSea: Are all hoodies priced the same regardless of rarity or fabric used?
Colby Mugrabi: Yeah, if you mint from the primary market, the output is random and the price is all the same, in the secondary market, there is an element of price discovery, the cashmere output has a high price premium, out of 960 pieces, 100 are cashmere and 860 are French terry, it's interesting to watch how collectors interact with the decline in the secondary market.
OpenSea: I haven’t purchased any wearable NFTs yet, but I’m excited about the concept.
Colby Mugrabi: We hope that mmERCH can become an onboarding feature for traditional fashion consumers, with each physical product equipped with an NFC chip to create a web3 wallet called a “wearable wallet”, which allows people to interact with the blockchain without having to go through the traditional NFT minting process.
OpenSea: Each hoodie has an NFC chip, are they also associated with the soulbound tokens?
Colby Mugrabi: Exactly, each NFC chip connects the brand and the product once redeemed, and the first two utility functions are the utility cabinet - where you can access design features, rarity information and view the NFT on OpenSea - and then the wearable wallet where collectors can earn experience tokens by participating in events, which are soul-bound and stay with the physical object.
OpenSea: So if someone sells their tokens on the secondary market, will the experience tokens remain in that person’s wallet?
Colby Mugrabi: Yes, the wearable wallet will move with the physical hoodie, not the NFT.
OpenSea: So, it’s like buying an item that has a verified history, where you can prove its experiences, rather than just claiming them.
Colby Mugrabi: Yes, important experiences are often associated with clothing, and wearable wallets and experience tokens can serve as a record of those experiences, similar to a concert t-shirt or sweatshirt.
OpenSea: I can see a future where people in every fan-based industry will buy merchandise like we do now (sports games, concerts, etc.) but with the added benefit of tracking history, e.g. hockey fans might buy the jerseys their favorite team wore when it won a championship, or in the luxury space, I imagine buying a bag that has a history of being worn by a celebrity will be more valuable than a similar bag that has no history of being worn by a celebrity, do you talk about this kind of thing with your non-web3 friends or is it something that only web3 people understand?
Colby Mugrabi: I’m lucky to have a supportive group of friends, and we held the mmERCH launch party during NFT NYC in early April, which was an emotional event and a physical manifestation of all these worlds coming together, which is how we position mmERCH as a brand, leaders in web3, the art world, and the fashion world coming together to work on this common goal, and it’s exciting to see the brand we’re building and mmERCH’s place in the world really extend.
OpenSea: That’s lucky indeed! What’s next for mmERCH? Any trailers or previews you can share?
Colby Mugrabi: We plan to launch two collections this year with different partners, and each collection going forward will be a collaboration with someone from the web3 space or traditional fashion and art, looking for collaborations and new forms of utility through practical wardrobes and NFC chips.
OpenSea: Is there a mailing list for updates?
Colby Mugrabi: Yes, you can subscribe to our newsletter on our website mmERCH.xyz, follow us on Twitter and join our Discord to stay up to date on all our announcements!
OpenSea: Colby, thank you for your time, I’m deeply inspired and I hope to stay in touch and continue to follow your progress.
Colby Mugrabi: Thank you, Megan, have a great day, bye.
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