Will digital assets stay fashionable with Millennials and Gen-Zers?

Dec 27, 2022

A new study finds Millennials and Gen-Zers are the demographics that are purchasing digital fashion assets and fashion NFTs (non-fungible tokens) the most.

Research from fashion/lifestyle commerce platform Centra polling 2,000 British consumers in July found 21 percent of Millennials and 19 percent of Gen-Zers had purchased a digital fashion asset, or an NFT, versus nine percent for all respondents, according to Retail Tech Innovation Hub.

Of those buying digital assets, 38 percent saw them as an investment (46 percent among Gen-Zers). Thirty-one percent of Gen-Z shoppers wanted to dress their digital avatars as the main reason for purchasing NFTs, with 39 percent of overall respondents believing digital avatars will become the norm within the next two years as the Metaverse develops.

Still, while a quarter (27 percent) believed NFTs to be the future of fashion, 29 percent thought fashion NFTs were a fad that would pass, 25 percent said they didn’t trust NFTs and 24 percent thought NFTs were simply a gimmick used by fashion brands to sell more “things” to shoppers.

The fashion industry is one of the spaces that picked up on NFTs early. A Shopify report from March 2022 found 17 percent of the businesses on the Vogue Business Index experimenting with NFTs in some capacity.

NFTs have proven particularly popular in streetwear and sneakers, segments finding a strong collector’s market for physical products.

High-profile streetwear NFT releases continue to appear from brands like Puma and Renowned, according to Dot.LA. In August, Tiffany launched a streetwear-focused promotion that allowed owners of CryptoPunk NFTs to have their tokens turned into physical pendants.

Still, some see the NFT bubble bursting. According to a CNN Business article, NFT volume is down 89 percent from its peak in January, trading on the NFT marketplace OpenSea has dropped to its lowest since June of 2021 and once highly sought-after NFTs, like the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, are trading at a fraction of peak levels. General diminishing interest in the collectibles coupled with instability in the cryptocurrency market, which NFTs depend on, are two likely reasons NFT purchases and trading have waned.

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