Bennett Collen and Stephanie Howard (Endstate) on building a web3-native fashion brand (EP.346)

Ria and Nic from Castle Island sit down with Stephanie Howard and Bennett Collen, cofounders of Endstate, a web3 footwear and fashion brand. We cover the merits of the redeem-and-retain NFT model and the vision for Endstate. Bennett’s prior crypto startup and how he decided to unite his passion for sneakers with web3 How Bennett and Stephanie met and cofounded Endstate Stephanie’s career in sneaker design to date  Why creators and athletes are jumping at the opportunity to issue merchandise-linked NFTs Why Bennett and Stephanie chose to launch a web3 native brand How redeem-and-retain NFTs allow manufacturers to reduce inventory risk Why fashion is getting more targeted and niche Why Endstate is able to release new iterations of their sneakers so quickly Endstate’s rationale for manufacturing in the US Endstate drops to date Endstate’s new drop with Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith How web3 brands should think about which metaverse to build for Endstate’s thinking around Solana vs Ethereum and the impact of gas fees How to link physical products with NFTs – from NFCs to QRs to visual scans What should we call physical NFTs? Aside from shoes, what merch is amenable to the Endstate model? What product sectors will be NFTed? How developed are authenticated third party marketplaces for physically linked NFTs? Physical-linked NFTs as a trojan horse to onboard mass markets into web3 The future state of Endstate Other web3 drops Bennett and Stephanie enjoyed The future of entangled NFTs  Read more:  Nic Carter on Medium: Redeem and Retain NFTs are the future of Luxury Goods Vogue Business: How the crypto bear market is resetting fashion’s Web3 strategy Drops and more at endstate.io Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan's Collage #344