The SHIB currency is the second-largest meme cryptocurrency in the world. Recently, Shiba Inu announced its brand new fashion collaboration with John Richmond Designer Wear on Twitter. This is a signal that SHIB has ambitions to expand outside the world of memes.
Via twitter, the crypto company stated the following about the launch:
“10,000 JR x SHIB NFTS
Fashion Show – Milan Italy
Collection in Boutiques Worldwide”
John Richmond is Capitalizing on a Rising SHIB
The currency has boomed in recent months. Movie theatre chain AMC now accepts SHIB tokens as an acceptable payment. SHIB also made headlines when they launched the first dedicated cryptocurrency burn project in the world. Over 45,086,353 tokens were burned in the first 24 hours of the project. The tokens were sent to a dead wallet to protect current holders and the community.
As of March 1st, the announcement appears to have seen a positive trend for the coin (up 18% in the two weeks after the announcement) and some suggest that the new fashion collaboration will draw more investors.
Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer of Shiba Inu, tweeted,
“Another powerful partnership by SHIB. This one will change the #fashion industry forever. Much more details to follow! #shibarmy”
On Twitter, Antonella, a representative of John Richmond commented on the new launch. The hour-and-change stream features popular SHIB Twitter influencers, such as MILKSHAKE. In the release, they address the listeners and SHIB enthusiasts, known as the “shib army.”
There is still no word of the upcoming release date, but it is presumed that it will coincide with Milan Fashion Week.
A Mysterious Launch
The prices of the 10,000 new units are still unknown. Mysteriously, even the connection between the SHIB coin and the fashion designer is unknown–and why John Richmond decided to get into the world of NFTs has still yet to be explained on their website or elsewhere, besides the twitter anouncement.
Photos of his latest collection and fashion show do not appear to include anything related to SHIB, and their website contains no reference to the launch just yet. The news is still early, and the designer’s twitter presence is still relatively new.
John Richmond only made a moves on Twitter this past January. It appears the company is making great strides towards catching up with the digital age.
In the Twitter announcement, the representative speaks about how online digital fashion is an exciting new step for the design house and a logical place to take their collections into the future.
There have been many successful launches of digital clothing collections over the past two years. We may see more of these in the future – the question of sustainability in fashion remains a hot debate. Expect more designers to launch digital collections to push their sustainability agendas.
gfinityesports.com found what possibly could be the closest connection between SHIB and Richmond. The graphic designer of Welly’s (A SHIB-coin-themed fast food restaurant), replied to the company’s debut tweet. The graphic designer celebrated Richmond’s move on to Twitter.
John Richmond is Making a Comeback
The shift to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens may seem surprising as John Richmond was a brand that was popular in the early 2000s. They featured urban, fun styles that influenced trends. They seem to have fallen off, however, and in recent years the company has changed hands several times.
In 2015, the Luxembourg-based company Fashioneast acquired all of the IP rights of the past collections of the John Richmond brand. In 2017, the company went through a total rebranding. Richmond himself came on as creative director.
Recently, in 2020 the brand launched a collection in Shanghai and saw significant sales growth in China.
This September, the show and collection will launch at Milan Fashion Week in Italy. John Richmond X SHIB will walk the runway under the theme, “Legends Live Forever”.
MILKSHAKE, a popular SHIB influencer, tweeted on March 2nd an image of a bus in the streets of Milan featuring The SHIB logo.
Additionally, she tweeted this:
“Powerful Fashion Statement: Launched on the final day of Italy’s fashion week, and the first day of Paris Fashion Week. This partnershib is set to push us to yet another industry with great energy, and all for the #ShibArmy. Thank you John Richmond for all the hard work.”
The garments will be immediately available in John Richmond Worldwide stores, international flagship stores in Milan and Shanghai, johnrichmond.com, and in select boutiques and e-partners.
In addition to the big moves SHIB has made in these past months, it seems cryptocurrency and NFTs have the power to offer a second wind to some designers that could use fresh eyes. Time will tell if the resurgence will be popular among collectors, seeing as the details of the fashion pieces have yet to be released.
