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Web3 media brand Doodles is launching a collection of phygital wearables curated by its chief brand officer, Pharrell Williams, in a step towards its goal to create a universe that bridges IP and social identity, and rewards community engagement.
The 300 free-to-mint “Pharrell-Packs” of digital wearables will be part of the Doodles 2 collection, which launched this year and is in beta stage. Doodles 2 allows holders to personalise their Doodles — a series of pastel-coloured cartoon characters; some human, others animals and objects — on-chain. The goal is to make the community more accessible; the original collection is capped at 10,000 and resells for multiple ETH. Doodles 2 takes a mass-market approach — anyone can mint a “base-level” Doodle to customise.
All Pharrell-Packs are customised by Williams in collaboration with his brands Billionaire Boys Club’s sub-brand Icecream and Humanrace. The holders of each pack will receive three digital wearables from the brands, and one token for physical redemption. There are 252 pairs of Pharrell x Adidas Humanrace Samba sneakers (in pastel orange, lilac, yellow and pink) up for grabs, and 12 pairs of green 50th birthday edition Sambas that aren’t for sale elsewhere (available exclusively to Pharrell’s “Phriends and Phamily”). The remaining 36 holders will receive various items from the brands, be it an Icecream skate deck or Humanrace hoodie. The digital wearables, dropping today, are available to “OG” Doodle NFT holders.
Doodles is a 10,000-strong collection of generative PFPs created by Evan Keast, Scott Martin, and Jordan Castro in October 2021. Holders of these NFTs can mint via a custom login experience where they dress their Doodle in the beta Stoodio — Doodles’s new offering, also launching today — which is designed to be the entry point into the Doodles ecosystem. The Stoodio will house holders’ existing wearables, make new ones available and offer character-building capabilities plus exclusive perks for OG Doodle holders.
It’s a step toward the two-part universe Doodles is working to create. It’s part real-world lifestyle brand wherein people use Doodles as a social identity and community-builder; to communicate on Twitter; meet in-person; and create derivative artwork with the characters. And there’s a parallel, fictional character world-driven IP. “Those two worlds will crash into each other at times,” Doodles CEO Julian Holguin says. “Where we bring brands and celebrities [like Williams] into the Doodles universe.”
Williams joined Doodles as its chief brand officer in June 2022. He brings his fashion connections to the NFT platform: Williams is the co-founder of Billionaire Boys Club and has collaborated with Adidas in the past. His fashion profile skyrocketed in February, when Louis Vuitton named Williams as its next men’s creative director, filling the role left vacant when Virgil Abloh died in 2021. It’s one of the industry’s most high-profile design roles, thanks in large part to Abloh’s revered legacy, and how the multi-hyphenate Williams approaches the job will be closely watched. A highly visible NFT launch in the months leading up to his debut at Louis Vuitton (his first collection will show in June) raises questions about whether or not Williams’s interest in the space will carry over to the luxury house.
Louis Vuitton was early to experiment with NFTs in the past. In August 2021, it launched Louis: The Game, which rewarded players with the chance to win NFTs. The following April, Louis Vuitton doubled down by adding new quests and rewards to the game app. The brand has been quiet on the NFT front since.
Williams’s profile is sure to raise Doodle’s. “As a collector, you’ll be able to get your hands on the stuff Pharrell likes to wear,” Holguin says. “It’s the first time you see a major arbiter of culture brought into our universe.”
“Art and technology have been two of the most transformational influences on me,” Williams says. “Doodles is bringing these two worlds together in an immersive universe.”
Rewarding community engagement
OG holders must complete a series of actions to enter the raffle for the chance to be airdropped a pack. These engagement metrics include using a “Dooplicator” to create first-edition Doodles wearables, opening a “Genesis box” to create second-edition wearables and signing up for a Stoodio account. To start, it’s about rewarding the core community. However, if someone were to discover Doodles by a Pharrell social media post, or an Icecream hoodie, a newcomer could complete the required tasks, Holguin says.
The aim is to be exclusive — recognising community engagement via access to hyped, limited-edition physical shoes they can wear in-person as well as on their Doodle.
It’s also a fitting time for Icecream to hop on board. “As we look to celebrate our 20th anniversary this year, alongside the launch of our new Web3 venture, BB3 Labs, our participation in the Doodles 2 Pharrell Williams pack has allowed us to take some of our iconic graphics and 2000s-era fashion sense, and reimagine them within this exciting new natively digital context,” says Greg Locsin, Web3 creative director at Billionaire Boys Club and Icecream.
The brand is also bringing the Doodles IP into the physical world. “We’ve designed an Icecream x Doodles capsule collection, featuring a collaborative line of physical products dropping at Something in the Water 2023 [a festival taking place in Virginia, spearheaded by Williams].” By doing so, it’ll get more eyeballs on the Web3 community.
Doodles goes against the grain of NFT projects that lean into crypto- and infrastructure-heavy language. It’s more akin to approaches brands are taking to integrate Web3 technology into their loyalty programmes, as Alo did with its Aspen collection, and TYB is offering with its blockchain-based community-management platform. “We’re trying to create an end-to-end collector and consumer experience that creates rewarding environments for everybody at every step of that journey,” Holguin says. “By September/October, Doodles will look a lot less like an NFT project.”
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