Balmain launches its Web3 community, The Balmain Thread, at Paris Fashion Week

High-end fashion brand Balmain is partnering with premium NFT minting platform MintNFT to create “The Balmain Thread,” the fashion house’s Web3 community and NFT-based membership program. 

The Balmain Thread debuted during the Balmain Festival at Paris Fashion Week on September 28. The festival’s guest donations and profits from merchandise and food sales will be donated to RED to support the organization’s work to end AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The Balmain Thread was named after the vision of the creative director Olivier Rousteing to build multiple creations that together form one unbroken story. He notes, “My goal has always been to ensure that this house’s designs are timeless and tied together by a unifying thread. And it’s important to never break that thread.”

As such, the Web3 community will be the gateway to exclusive events, special house collections, and unique NFT offerings that unite its members through a single, continuous thread. 

The pathways into the Balmain Thread community

Balmain offered three ways to join the community during the Balmain Festival event. Anyone who attended the festival had the opportunity to join upon receiving their tickets. In addition, those who watched the live streaming could gain access via links. And lastly, those who attended the festival in person had the option to join the community by launching The Moment app. This app, provided by MintNFT, allowed attendees to convert a photo of a moment from the festival into their own NFTs. 

In the future, there’ll be more opportunities to become a member of the Balmain Thread and gain access to new product drops and in-store VIP events. “The Balmain Thread is a first-of-its kind membership program that will unlock access and provide house followers with the richer experiences that were never possible before,” says James Sun, the CEO of MintNFT.

You can join the waitlist here. 

Partnership with MintNFT

This is not the first time Balmain partners with MintNFT. Previously, an NFT auction hosted by MintNFT featured a Balmain x Barbie collection.

There was also a collaboration with digital artist Jeff Cole, Balmain X Cole, in which the artist reimagined the design of Olivier Rousteing’s Balmain Unicorn Sneaker. Three sneaker NFTs were available for bidding, where the NFT utilities included one pair of sneakers signed by the creative director Rousteing, access to exclusive NFT drops in the future, and VIP passes to the Balmain Festival mentioned above. 

The long-term partnership began in May 2022 with the goal of building an NFT-based ecosystem that delivers immersive digital and physical experiences to the fashion house’s global audience. As Txampi Diz, Balmain CMO who leads the brand’s Web3 voyage, emphasizes, “The Balmain Thread builds upon this house’s distinctive strategy of continually exploring pathways that might strengthen our ties with the incredibly engaged, diverse and global Balmain Army.” 

About MintNFT and XRP Ledger

MintNFT was co-founded by tech entrepreneurs James Sun and Teddy Zee. The company develops Web3 experiences that facilitate easy onboarding of mainstream customers and bridge the gap between artists and brands to foster creative and collaborative communities. The company is launching a new product, The Club, a membership and rewards program that allows customers to interact with their favorite brands.

Balmain and MintNFT also partnered with XRP Ledger, a carbon-neutral layer one blockchain. XRP Ledger offers a broad range of services, including payments, decentralized finance, and tokenization. 

What comes next?

The partners will soon release a limited-edition NFT drop in collaboration with Z2 Comics, titled Balmain Dreams: 10 OR. The drop will feature more than a dozen illustrated short stories, each depicting the landscapes and fantasies that inspired Olivier Rousteing to create some of his most celebrated collections in the last ten years.