How MNTGE brings authentic vintage fashion into the metaverse

Vintage clothes and NFT collectibles are very different products, but both have driven secondary markets with value defined in part by provenance, rarity and uniqueness. These commonalities led to MNTGE (pronounced “Mintage”), a digital fashion startup that seeks to bridge the gap between vintage clothing and metaverse.

MNTGE was founded by Nick Adler – entrepreneur and Snoop Dogg’s brand manager – along with sneaker designer and streetwear store owner Sean Wotherspoon and former Adidas marketing manager Brennan Russo. Adler told Decrypt that he and Russo had the “aha moment” behind MNTGE while visiting Wotherspoon’s store, Round Two.

“We’re just starting to get really nerdy about it,” Adler said of the parallels and potential mix between NFTs and vintage clothing.

Launching on Wednesday with a Ethereum Called MNTGE Pass, the NFT aims to bring physical vintage fashion to the NFT world as digital wearables that can be used in metaverse platforms. But it also seeks to build a community of fashion and streetwear lovers, providing priority access to genuine vintage finds.

MNTGE’s plans after the launch of MNTGE Pass are varied, but they start with a digital fashion drop curated by Wotherspoon himself in Q1 2023. The drop will showcase the kind of technology the startup is playing with, using an advanced capture system—the same one used to creating digital doubles of actors for movies – to perfectly recreate physical vintage outfits.

Adler showed a video demo of the jacket above, which was stitched together via images taken off the rig and turned into a stitch-accurate digital wearable. It’s based on a real 1960s denim jacket that Wotherspoon won at auction, and Adler said his co-founder wanted to be able to see the stitching on the scanned digital recreation.

Wotherspoon, who collects rare vintage clothing and has designed for brands such as Nike, Adidas and Porsche, said Decrypt which MNTGE has as a goal bringing “a level of detail and imagination that you wouldn’t have expected in a Web3 the garment before.”

While it would be possible for MNTGE to scan existing vintage clothing and sell these garments as NFTs, there is an obvious legal hurdle to clear. Adler said the startup has obtained “broad licenses” from as-yet-unannounced brands to bring their vintage fashion into the metaverse, but will first establish itself through non-licensing pieces.

Each of the 1,500 MNTGE Pass Day One NFTs will sell for 0.5 ETH (approx. $640) and grant holders access to MNTGE’s token-gated Discord community, plus priority access to Wotherspoon’s drop and more to come from other designers. There will also be NFTs sent to holders along the way — bonus “Easter eggs,” Adler said.

Beyond the digital drops, MNTGE is working on ways to offer holders access to the kind of vintage gems that Wotherspoon and his allies regularly source. Passholders will be able to shop the future MNTGE Market online store to buy authenticated vintage clothing, which Adler said will be sold without the typically substantial markups seen in trendy stores.

MNTGE also aims to host future physical pop-up stores around art and fashion world events, such as Art Basel or New York Fashion Week, providing additional benefits for the holders. The firm also works with popular NFTs profile picture (PFP) projects, Adler said, to develop potential future collaborations around digital apparel.

Along with helping Snoop in his many NFT measuresAdler has acted as a consultant for a number of Web3 projects, including Bored Ape Yacht Club and The sandbox. He’s now creating for the metaverse in an age where NFT plots and avatars no longer command the kind of high sums and fervent demand seen this time last year.

“No pun intended — the land grab is over,” Adler said.

Instead, with MNTGE, he said he wanted to build something original from scratch that he believes will endure through the bear market. As hardware VR headset and AR glasses become more accessible and accessible in the future, Adler believes that digital apparel will be well poised to take off as an NFT-powered Web3 metaverse expands.

“Some of the hype has died and you’re going to see a lot of losers from the metaverse craze,” he said. “But there will be a handful that sustain and will come out as big winners. We’re going to enter a future where this metaverse exists.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to clarify the name of the NFT passport.