Louis Vuitton to sell €39,000 NFTs

By Maghan McDowell

This article originally appeared on Vogue Business. To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.

Amid a quiet year on the Web3 front, Louis Vuitton is getting further into the NFT game. Today, the brand is announcing a new collection of phygital "Treasure Trunks", which will grant owners access to future products and experiences, as well as a community of fellow holders. Each piece costs €39,000, and only several hundred trunks will be made available.

The NFT launch is part of a new project called "Via", the Latin word for road, which nods to its aim to act as an elite pathway towards products and experiences that are inaccessible to others. This has become a key trend in branded NFT projects, with hard-to-acquire and expensive NFTs often positioned as the keys to other products and experiences, both physical and digital. The brand sees Via as a new chapter, which extends to traceability (as seen in the LV Diamonds collection, which uses the Aura blockchain), and event-focused NFTs that cultivate and reward communities of NFT holders.

Louis Vuitton hints at future gamified elements that invite collectors to dissect clues.

It's a hard pivot from Louis Vuitton's previous NFT offering, Louis the Game, which was a free-to-play experience introduced in August 2021 to educate players on Louis Vuitton's history and reward successful players with the opportunity to win one of 30 free digital postcards. The timing is also notable, as branded NFT projects have both slowed in pace and become more quiet in terms of marketing, and the tech hype cycle has shifted to other categories such as generative artificial intelligence. Many in the space are reframing this period as a reset, in which the emphasis is on long-term community value through new ways of accessing products and experiences, in opposition to "tech-for-tech's sake" experiments or quick-changing peaks and valleys in terms of market value.

The new launch aligns with Louis Vuitton's stated outlook on NFTs. In January of last year — amid peak metaverse and NFT hype — LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault hinted that high-value items might be the best approach to applying these technologies to the company's brands. "We have to see what will be the applications of the metaverse and NFTs," Arnault said during an earnings call at the time. "It can undoubtedly have a positive impact — if it is well done — on the activity of the brands, but it is not our objective to sell virtual sneakers at €10. We are not interested in that."

"It is not our objective to sell virtual sneakers at €10."

To acquire one of the trunks, customers (based in the US, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Japan and Australia) can register via a waiting list on a dedicated website on 8 June, where they will be invited to connect their crypto wallets (which enables LV to view their holders) and fill out personal details (such as wallet ID, name and country). On 14 June, Louis Vuitton will invite selected registrants to learn more about the world of Via through a private webpage, followed by an invitation on 16 June to purchase their Via Treasure Trunk, using cryptocurrency or fiat currency, on a dedicated site. Later on, holders will receive a made-to-order physical twin of their trunk. First offered more than 160 years ago, Louis Vuitton trunks can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Louis Vuitton is guarding access to Via in other ways, as holders cannot sell or give it to another person, which is a contrast to many of the original high-value communities. (The brand refers to it as a "soul-bound collectible", which is a new concept in the past year to facilitate loyalty and discourage flipping.) People also cannot return their Treasure Trunks (although in EU countries, people can change their mind within 14 days after ordering one). Holders will also be able to periodically buy bespoke "keys" that unlock access to additional products, the first of which will be available in mid-June and revealed only to those trunk owners who have purchased the corresponding key. Some of the new products will be customised for each trunk owner, and new products will include a record of ownership and proof of authenticity. While holders can't sell their original trunks, they can sell future items that they acquire within the ecosystem via the keys.

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These structures — post-mint reveals, access to buy (and sell) future exclusive products — are in keeping with many previously successful NFT projects, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Rtfkt, now owned by Nike. Generally, community members are the only ones who are able to buy future products, and they often only see the designs and specifics of acquisitions after they have been purchased.

Louis Vuitton has held on to a few more traditional "Web1" approaches, including correspondence through waiting list email addresses (which could obviate the anonymity that is characteristic of Web3) and limiting ability for holders to flip their original NFTs (often for a hefty profit). LVMH's Nelly Mensah, who as the VP of digital innovation and emerging solutions leads its Web3 efforts, refers to this strategy as "Web2.5". This is more appealing to traditional luxury clients, as, for example, there is no customer service in a true Web3 world. The promise of an ongoing roadmap, the high price of entry and the limited number available also all point to a mindset that has more in common with established luxury than a speculative, trendy approach.

This more restrained strategy — three NFT launches in as many years — is in opposition to competitor Gucci's more prolific and varied Web3 approach, which has seen partnerships with those including Superplastic, 10KTF and The Sandbox, spanning virtual worlds, phygital figurines, digitally dressed PFPs and token-gated parties. Louis Vuitton's strategy is perhaps more akin to Tiffany's (also now under the LVMH umbrella), which offered 250 owners of Cryptopunks PFPs the option to purchase custom-made, Cryptopunk-inspired pendants for the equivalent of $52,000 at the time. Prada has also established an ongoing cadence of NFT launches via its monthly phygital Timecapsule drops. Treasure Trunks are reminiscent of Hermès's (analogue) strategy for distributing high-value, high-demand items such as its Birkin bags, which are considered only available to customers who reach certain spending thresholds and other hurdles.

It's worth noting that, also in the past year, Louis Vuitton has tapped NFT early adopter Pharrell Williams as its new men's creative director, hinting to some that he might bring an enthusiastic sentiment to the brand.

This latest launch, then, might be viewed as the start of a long-term journey a year in the making.

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