Crypto payments will be welcomed at the new store in Miami’s Design District.
Luxury retailer Ralph Lauren has announced that it will accept cryptocurrency payments in its new Miami store. According to the press release, the store will accept Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) through its partnership with BitPay.
As well as accepting crypto payments, the brand will collaborate with Poolsuite, a Web3 community “deeply rooted in the Miami lifestyle”, to create an exclusive NFT.
The Ralph Lauren x Poolsuite NFT will be gifted to all existing Poolsuite members and will unlock exclusive access to an event that will take place at the end of April in conjunction with the store opening.
In addition, holders of Poolsuite’s Grand Leisure collection will be able to update their ‘Leisurist’ Avatars with digital Ralph Lauren looks, using the vintage-vehicle-inspired ‘RL3000’ website.
Poolsuite plans to build the “future of internet leisure”, and Ralph Lauren will be its first major collaboration.
Web3 appears to be a central tenet of the brand’s vision moving forward.
Ralph Lauren’s chief innovation and branding officer, David Lauren, recently told WWD that the new store “will be an opportunity for us as a brand to gather key insights as we continue to explore the space.”
He added: “We are in the early stages of our road map, but we see an exciting opportunity ahead across digital goods and virtual experiences to build upon our past touchpoints in the metaverse.”
Last year, the brand released digital clothing collections with Roblox and Fortnite. CEO Patrice Louvet told CNBC that the company was embracing the metaverse to connect with younger consumers.
He said: “One of our strategies is to win over a new generation and the new generation is there. So we have to be there. There are a lot of parallels actually between the metaverse and Ralph’s vision because we are not a fashion company. We are in the dreams business.”
The store is the first Ralph Lauren branch to accept crypto payments.
