The fashion industry has experienced the problem of duplication and counterfeiting for many decades. There are reports that in 2020 alone, the fashion industry lost about $50 billion to the sale of fake products. The application of NFTs in the fashion industry can solve this problem.
This is primarily how it would work: as fashion items are being released into the market, NFTs will be minted with the items. So for example, if a Nike shoe were to be sold, an NFT would be minted with the shoe, such that the buyer will get both the shoe and the NFT. Even if the buyer were to resell the shoe, the NFT will also be handed over to the next buyer. As the sale cycle continues, the sales history will be uploaded to the NFT’s database. This way, buyers can distinguish original items from counterfeits.
Brands like Prada and Cartier have announced plans to launch NFTs as proof of real-world ownership of fashion items. Also, Nike recently launched its blockchain-backed verification platform. The platform is called CryptoKicks and it tokenizes real-world ownership. In the coming years, it is expected that NFTs will begin to function as standard proofs of ownership in the fashion world, as opposed to the certificates of authenticity that are currently in use.