Streetwear Brokerages

featured-post
finance
type - trends
Trends
sector - fashion
A series of new platforms are transforming fashion’s resale market into a bona fide investment arena, cementing garments as tradeable assets

Drivers: what’s happening

Defined by a fanatical consumer base that's tuned into drop schedules, exclusive collaborations and a robust resale market, hype culture is elevating the status of streetwear. Like fine art stored in a warehouse, the monetary value of some fashion products is beginning to eclipse their use value, positioning fashion not only as a commodity but also as a financial opportunity.

The emergence of fashion as an alternative asset comes amid Generation Z’s broader re-assessment of money and the tech-fuelled democratisation of finance. According to Credit Suisse, Gen Z’s predicted lifetime earnings from stocks and bonds are just a third of the returns enjoyed by older generations, fuelling interest, and often success, in alternative arenas. Data from streetwear trading platform StockX, for example, shows that some fashion collaborations consistently outperform the S&P 500 on the secondary market, achieving higher returns with less volatility.

Some 48% of buyers on StockX cite future worth or investment value as a purchase consideration. This mindset is prompting the rise of Streetwear Brokerages – platforms and services that provide financial tools to buyers, turning fashion from something they simply wear into a tradeable asset – disconnecting from its use value and relinking it to the promise of ROI.

Published by:

13 April 2022

Author: Isabelle Jones

Image: Rares, US

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StockX Vault NFTs

Case studies: what’s new

Handbags x Hype by Christie’s

Focusing on the ways that streetwear has influenced luxury fashion and redefined what is collectable, auction house Christie’s recently hosted Handbags x Hype. This auction framed streetwear items such as Air Jordan XIIIs as an investment opportunity, much like fine art or wines, with luxury collectables such as Hermès Birkin bags going under the hammer alongside streetwear. For a traditional auctioneer to position high-end streetwear in this way shows that who and what we associate with investment is changing, demonstrating how streetwear is becoming a method of storing wealth.

Rares

This US start-up is seeking to democratise access to streetwear investments by allowing people to buy a share of ownership in high-value sneakers, with no minimum investment. In this way, Rares wants to ensure that the fashion fans and streetwear communities who have built sneaker culture can be part of its trade-orientated future. Shares are initially purchased through sneaker IPOs, after which investors can sell their shares or choose to keep them until the shoes go to auction. At this point, shareholders will receive a dividend pay-out based on the shoes' resale value.

StockX Vault NFTs

Harnessing its reach as a streetwear platform, StockX Vault NFTs is a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that represent highly sought-after or rare sneakers. These NFTs can be held, sold or exchanged for the physical product, which StockX keeps in a vault like a traditional bank reserve. This brokerage allows people to flip sneakers without the inconvenience or environmental impact of packaging, shipping and authenticating their goods. Culturally, it represents a shift in the way people are buying fashion, distilling this process into a purely financial exchange, and decoupling streetwear investments from the need to physically own, hold or wear the product.

‘This is a way for the culture to figure out a new way of growing wealth through an avenue that they’re familiar with – sneakers’
Gerome Sapp, co-founder, Rares
 
 

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