Fashion brands still use NFTs in 2026, but mostly not as collectibles. The practical use now is the digital product passport: a scannable record of a garment's origin, materials and ownership. Many luxury groups keep these records on a shared blockchain. Speculative drops have faded. Nike, the biggest sportswear name in the space, told the market on 2 December 2024 that it would wind down its NFT studio RTFKT, with services ending by the end of January 2025. Meanwhile the Aura Blockchain Consortium, founded by LVMH, OTB Group, Prada Group and Richemont, says it has more than 50 members and kept announcing passport rollouts through mid-2026. Regulation is the next driver: the European Commission plans to adopt the textiles delegated act under its Ecodesign Regulation in Q4 2027.
What a fashion NFT is
A non-fungible token is a unique record on a blockchain. One token cannot be swapped one-for-one with another, unlike a unit of bitcoin. In fashion, brands have used tokens in three ways:
- Digital wearables: virtual clothing or sneakers for avatars, games and AR filters, with no physical item.
- Phygital items: a physical product paired with a token that works as a certificate of authenticity or a digital twin.
- Collectibles and access passes: limited digital art that unlocks community membership, events or later drops.
A digital product passport is a different thing, although the two overlap. Its job is product data: provenance, materials, repair and resale history. Some brands record it as a token. Others use a permissioned ledger or an ordinary database. The EU rules discussed below require the passport, but the Commission's textile page does not require a blockchain.
What happened: the drop era, dated
2021–2023: the experiments
- Louis Vuitton, 2021. The house marked its 200th anniversary with Louis: The Game, a free mobile game in which players could find one of 30 NFTs.
- Nike, 13 December 2021. Nike announced it had acquired RTFKT and described it as a brand "delivering next-generation collectibles" that used game engines, NFTs, blockchain authentication and augmented reality. Terms were not disclosed.
- adidas Originals, 17 December 2021. The Into the Metaverse collection, made with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney and PUNKS Comic, minted 30,000 tokens at 0.2 ETH. The Block reported the drop raised 5,924 ETH, about $23.5 million at the time. Holders were promised physical and virtual wearables in 2022.
- Louis Vuitton, June 2023. The VIA Treasure Trunk was priced at €39,000 per token. It was soulbound, meaning it could not be transferred or resold, and it came with a physical counterpart. Holders could buy digital keys to later collections.
2023–2025: the economics weakened
Two changes undercut the original pitch.
Royalties stopped being guaranteed. Early marketing said resale royalties were "enforced by code". In practice the marketplace enforced them, not the token. OpenSea switched off its royalty-enforcement tool, the Operator Filter, on 31 August 2023 and made creator fees optional for new collections. Collections that already used the filter kept enforced fees until 29 February 2024. A brand that wants a guaranteed resale cut needs either a non-transferable token, as Louis Vuitton chose, or a resale channel it controls.
The flagship exited. On 2 December 2024 RTFKT said it would wind down, and services ended by the end of January 2025. Bloomberg linked the decision to Nike's new direction under CEO Elliott Hill. Decrypt pointed to falling prices for RTFKT's Clone X collection and weaker interest in NFTs. The Block reported that RTFKT's Ethereum tokens would stay accessible.
2026: passports, not drops
Aura's own news feed lists the direction of travel this year. All dates below are from Aura's site and have not been independently checked:
- 15 April 2026: Bvlgari extends its digital passport to timepieces.
- 14 May 2026: Prada's Re-Nylon SEA BEYOND collection carries a digital product passport in every piece.
- 29 June 2026: Tiffany & Co. joins the consortium.
Aura describes its ledger as "proprietary" and says it balances privacy, control and openness. That is a different design from a public chain where anyone can trade the token.
The regulation behind the shift
The EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, introduces digital product passports by product group. On its textile page, the European Commission says:
- Textile apparel is a priority group in the ESPR Working Plan 2025–2030.
- The passport will be readable at online points of sale and through a data carrier on the product, such as a QR code.
- Adoption of the textiles delegated act is planned for Q4 2027. Guidance and technical specifications follow after that, and "timelines may evolve".
The obligations will come from that delegated act. Brands that sell into the EU are building passport infrastructure now, and that work is a bigger driver of blockchain use in fashion than consumer NFT demand.
Before you buy a fashion token: what are you getting?
Answer three questions from the article's buyer checklist to see what a brand token gives you and what it does not.
Have you checked the contract address against the brand's official channels?
- Yes, it matches the brand's official channels → next question
- No, or I only have a link from a post or message → Stop and verify the contract first
What do the collection's terms say the token grants?
- A physical item to redeem, or access to events or later drops → next question
- A written copyright or trademark licence → next question
- Nothing beyond the record, or the terms do not say → You are buying a record, not the brand
Can the token be transferred or resold?
- No, it is soulbound (non-transferable) → A purchase you cannot resell
- Yes, it can be traded on open marketplaces → Do not count on royalties or lasting utility
Copycat collections are common. Check the contract address against the brand's official channels before you pay, and keep your wallet's recovery phrase offline: nobody legitimate will ask for it.
A token usually gives you no copyright or trademark licence. In the MetaBirkins case a Manhattan federal jury found that NFTs using the Birkin name infringed Hermès's trademark rights, so owning a token is not owning the brand.
A soulbound token cannot be transferred or resold, as with Louis Vuitton's VIA Treasure Trunk. The brand keeps resale under its control, and any utility can end if the issuer winds the project down.
Resale royalties were enforced by marketplaces, not by the token, and creator fees became optional on a major marketplace in 2023. Utility can also end: RTFKT's services ended by the end of January 2025, although its tokens stayed accessible.
This walks through the article's buyer checklist only: it does not value any token, check a specific contract or collection, or give legal, tax or investment advice.
Legal risk: owning a token is not owning the brand
The most-cited case is Hermès International v. Rothschild. In February 2023 a Manhattan federal jury found that the artist's 100 "MetaBirkins" NFTs infringed Hermès's Birkin trademark rights and awarded $133,000 in total damages. The jury also rejected a First Amendment defense. Judge Jed Rakoff later denied a new trial and granted Hermès a permanent injunction. The Second Circuit heard the appeal on 23 October 2024. We could not verify whether it has ruled.
What this means in practice:
- For buyers: a token usually gives you no copyright or trademark licence. Read the collection's terms.
- For creators: putting a famous brand's name or design on a token can be infringement, even when it is presented as art.
Is it greener?
The energy objection has mostly gone for Ethereum-based tokens. Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake in the Merge on 15 September 2022, and ethereum.org estimates this cut annualised electricity use by more than 99.988%. That number covers the network only. It does not show that digital fashion replaces physical production. The previous version of this article made that claim without evidence, and we have removed it.
Practical checklist
If you are a brand
- Decide the job first. Authentication and passport data are a compliance and resale tool. Collectibles are a marketing tool. They need different designs.
- Choose transferability on purpose. Soulbound tokens keep resale under your control. Transferable tokens on open marketplaces do not guarantee royalties.
- Map passport data to the coming EU textile requirements, and do not lock it into one vendor.
- Plan for the token outliving the programme. RTFKT kept its tokens accessible after the shutdown. Holders will expect the same from you.
If you are buying
- Check the contract address against the brand's official channels before you pay. Copycat collections are common.
- Read what the token actually grants: physical redemption, access, a licence, or nothing beyond the record.
- Expect that utility can end if the issuer winds the project down.
- Keep your wallet's recovery phrase offline. Nobody legitimate will ask for it.
Limitations: brand case studies come from company releases and trade press, and the 2026 passport items come from the Aura consortium's own news feed.
