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Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodie, Steve Jobs’s New Balances: the tech uniform has been established to be as anti-fashion statement as possible. But what if there was a luxury brand, with all the flair and fuss, for tech bros?
Gmoney, who has become a well-known crypto influencer, investor and now founder of Web3 brand 9dcc, wants to make that a reality. He says a luxury fashion brand for geeks has yet to exist. “We get pigeonholed as ‘tech bros’ or ‘tech nerds’ and ‘they don’t dress well’.” So, he is introducing a 54-piece collection of clothing for guys in the crypto and tech scenes who have money to spend, though might not feel entirely comfortable in traditional luxury stores. (About 85 per cent of tech startup founders are male.) They are looking for guidance, Gmoney says, and he hopes to provide just that.
Many pieces are a departure from 9dcc’s first staples, which were NFC-chipped black tees and baseball caps; the new pieces include a mustard checked suit, bomber and jean jackets, jeans with an oversized yellow print and a black trench coat. And, of course, T-shirts and hoodies. (More images are below.) Materials include satin, lambskin and American-made denim.
The aesthetic is centred around the concept of the “crypto mob” and was developed with 9dcc’s creative director, who prefers to remain anonymous but who has worked for brands including Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta and Prabal Gurung, in addition to music artists Janet Jackson and Steve Aoki and Web3-focused labels. Gmoney, who used to work in the traditional finance industry (and who for a long time kept his identity hidden behind a Cryptopunk PFP), says he grew up watching movies such as The Godfather, Goodfellas and Boys in the Hood, which romanticise organised crime. While the crypto scene doesn’t glorify rule-breaking, he’s quick to assert it has become known for rethinking the norms around banking, data sharing and transparency. “When I think of crypto, I think of people who think outside the box and are playing close to the edge and are risk-takers. Those things are a few key components and traits that describe someone in crypto at this point.”
He adds that the community, while briefly lauded and chased by luxury due to its high spending power and cultural phenomenon, is now struggling to rise above the din of sceptics who associate blockchain-based technologies with the dark web, evading taxes or other criminal means. Crypto and its evangelists are still largely misunderstood, he says. The arrest and conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried — who is now headed to prison due to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy — didn’t help. Neither did the crashing value of ETH. To those new to the space and less resilient to the dramatic fluctuations, cryptocurrencies might have just looked like the new tulip craze. Gmoney points out there’s still money in crypto. “Both Bitcoin and ETH just had 52-week highs. Their spending power is about to grow significantly.”
The complete 9dcc collection is being unveiled later this week in Paris during the third NFT Paris conference. As attendees enter the Grand Palais, they will be greeted with a 9dcc pop-up space showcasing the pieces. Prices have yet to be announced, but the team did lower them at one point, Gmoney says, adding that he hopes people will be happy with the revised price points. (His inaugural tees were about the equivalent of $500 at the time of sale.) In a change to his original business structure — whereby only the 800 or so people who own one of his Admit One NFTs could purchase 9dcc pieces on the primary market (some wallets have more than one) — the new collection will be available to all via e-commerce and the Paris pop-up.
The Web3 influencer and investor’s experimental luxury brand is starting with an NFC-connected black T-shirt that is acquired through an intricate series of NFTs as the use of digital twins and physical signalling expands.
Evolving the business model
9dcc was launched in August 2022 with a black tee that collectors could acquire through an elaborate drop system; Gmoney had just made waves partnering with Adidas on its first NFT drop, and in preparation for 9dcc, he distributed the 1,000 Admit One NFTs seen as entry passes to buying his products. At the time, crypto collectors were still riding on record valuations of ETH, and some people flipped their Admit One NFTs for five-figure profits. The floor price (lowest price for any NFT in a given collection) in February was around $2,000.
Gmoney has since expanded his business model to enable outside brands to use the tech and the mechanisms that 9dcc has developed — a concept called “networked products” in which wearers are encouraged to scan each others’ NFC chips.
The business-to-business pivot was, in part, a response to a change in how NFT creators earn incremental revenue on secondary sales: they are no longer automatically allocated royalties through popular peer-to-peer marketplaces. This means that while Gmoney might have originally pocketed a percentage of proceeds when people sold 9dcc or Admit One NFTs, he can no longer bank on that happening. Now, he says, the business model is built under the assumption that royalties are a perk of the past. In addition to expanding to the B2B offering, he is also rewarding collectors with loyalty points, and those who do agree to pay royalties can collect points that can be exchanged for future benefits.
Gmoney says this is already a feature of the luxury industry. Loyal customers are often “rewarded” with access to purchase additional exclusive items or participate in special events. Alternatively, “if you are on the waitlist and you do something that offends the company, then maybe you don’t get anything directly from the factory again,” he says. He is also experimenting with connected fashion that can, for example, connect with a home thermostat or pay to unlock a subway turnstile.
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He has an internal dashboard on the 9dcc community via visibility on what’s in his collectors’ crypto wallets, including how much money they have and the NFTs they have collected from other brands and NFT communities. This helps guide the sentiment of his own community, as well as who to target next. (He declines to share specifics for fear of giving away the game plan.) He says that the buying power and activity are above average compared to other communities in the space. According to data provided by 9dcc and compiled by blockchain analytics company Web3sense, the “wealth following” of Gmoney was 155,522 ETH as of 22 January; by comparison, Rtfkt’s is 142,965. (The wealth following is based on a calculation of the value held in the crypto wallets of the X, previously Twitter, handles that follow certain X accounts.)
The fact remains that fashion — and fashion customers — are noticeably less interested in urgently issuing or buying NFTs. But Gmoney says that the traditional fashion ecosystem isn’t really his target demographic. Instead, it’s the tech guys who have been eschewed by fashion.
He also doesn’t hate the typical crypto bro aesthetic of hoodies and tees. His first piece, after all, was a black T-shirt. After Paris, he will be heading to the ETH Denver conference, which is historically incredibly techie and incredibly male — 9dcc’s core demographic. He doesn’t expect anyone to be wearing a suit. He hopes that one day they might be wearing a 9dcc look, and he wants it to be the “best hoodie and sweatpants they have ever worn”. “My goal is to dress them head to toe for any occasion they have.” Giving them confidence, in place of a high score on the fashion scale, is a sign of success. If the most high-fashion look is a 10, “we are probably at a one or a two”, he says.
In other words, it might be just fine if fashion doesn’t take to 9dcc, he says. The crypto crowd will.
