Permian: A Look into The First Phygital Luxury Sneaker Brand
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The best innovation comes from necessity. And that was exactly the case for Gani, the founder of Permian. Permian is the first phygital luxury one-of-one sneaker brand designed with the planet in mind.
After looking for a nice pair of luxury sneakers that weren’t covered in diamonds, Gani came up short. So he put his pen to paper and found himself designing. After a quick Adobe Illustrator beginner course and a bit of hustle, his first collection was complete.
To celebrate Permian’s upcoming launch, I had the pleasure of chatting with Gavi to hear his story.
How did you get the idea for Permian?
Three things led to the birth of Permian; reading a disturbing headline, my passion for sneakers, and my interest in crypto and NFTs. The headline I read was along the lines of “Luxury Brands Prefer to Burn Billions in Unsold Goods” and I just remember thinking how irresponsible and short-sited. I genuinely believe luxury and the preservation of the planet (our home) can co-exist.
With that in mind, I knew I wanted to create a luxury, high quality, and responsible brand. The keyword is responsible, both environmentally and socially. I love and see the benefit of having a community that takes ownership and holds us accountable for decisions made – which fits perfectly with our brand’s name.
The word Permian comes from the geological period in the time when the Pangea existed. I want to build a brand with the community and for the community, as though we were collectively living together on the Pangea. In this day, the most efficient and exciting way to achieve this is through NFTs.
Tell us more about Permian. What are your future plans?
We are releasing a collection of 4,700 1 of 1 carbon-neutral physical and digital sneakers. They will be utterly unique to the wallet holder’s size and created using a blend of quality environmentally friendly materials.
Holders will receive a digital representation of their sneaker as an NFT. In addition to the monetary value held by Permian NFTs, each pair gives its owners a series of real-world utilities.
We want Permian NFTs holders to feel part of something rewarding, therefore NFTs holders will unlock the following rewards with their purchase: lifetime event access, exclusive voting rights, instant whitelisting, as well as other incredible rewards which are currently in the pipeline. An added bonus for our community is that each NFT will be optimized for the Metaverse. The Genesis collection is about bringing our dream of a clean future to life with our community pioneers by our side.
3. What did you learn from attending SNEAKERNESS?
SNEAKERNESS is a fantastic event that brings together sneakerheads around the world all under one roof. We had a booth and spent the whole weekend speaking about NFTs, sneakers, and how we are planning to change the space.
During the weekend, we quickly realized that the mass adoption is quite some way away. One in ten people we spoke to owned NFTs, and the rest had heard of the acronym and thought it was nothing more than a picture. However, over the course of the weekend, we were able to speak with people and increase their knowledge and perspective of NFTs and their impact. The whole experience definitely provided great insight for us as a brand. We’ve now recognized the need to put out more educational material to help the transition from Web2 to Web3.
4. Where do you think digital fashion is headed in the next five to ten years? What do we need to do to get there?
Over the next five years, we’ll definitely see more brands enter the space. There will be a lot of winners, but also a lot of brands that miss the mark. The brands who do the latter will use NFTs as a marketing tool, whereas the winners will identify their niche and use NFTs in a much more meaningful way for their holders.
I think the metaverse still has a few things that need to be explored and figured out before it can become more meaningful. Given how fast this space moves, I have no doubt that it will be figured out quickly and is something that will make a real difference. The most exciting thing I see happening, especially for digital-only brands is lower barriers to entry. Web3 doesn’t discriminate which is the true beauty of this space.
Traditionally, only the opinions of those that attended a Parsons or London College of Fashion were valued and set trends. However, within this space, everyone that has an interest in fashion will have their opinions heard – which makes sense given how subjective fashion is. It is already such an exciting space to work in and over the next 5 to 10 years I can only imagine that excitement will grow and be shared by many!
For us to get there however we need to be able as an NFT community to educate those who are not members of the community yet. We also need to hold each other accountable and flush out the negative press surrounding scams and cash grabs. The bad press that comes along with unethical activity is a disservice to what we are all trying to achieve.
To see more from Permian and follow along with their first drop, check out the official Permian website and join their Discord.