Trump Embraces Phygital Trends, Drawing Inspiration from the Digital Fashion Playbook

For several months, it has been the most popular craze in the world of digital fashion, captivating the attention of renowned fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci, and Balmain.

Now, "phygital" NFT collections have a new biggest fan: Donald J. Trump.

On Tuesday, Trump unveiled his third NFT collection, which, similar to the previous two, showcases an enhanced and slimmed-down depiction of the former president engaging in various activities, such as riding horses through fields and even portraying a cyborg exploring outer space.'

Unlike the previous two trading card collections, though, which were completely digital, Tuesday’s set features a very unique physical perk: collectors who purchase at least 47 of Trump’s newest trading cards (at $99 a piece) will also receive a tiny, little piece of the navy suit he wore while having his mugshot taken earlier this fall in Georgia, while being booked for allegedly violating state racketeering laws in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Reportedly, there are 2,024 fabric swatches available for purchase, along with an additional 225 pieces of 'suit and tie' from the same ensemble. However, the 'suit and tie' pieces are exclusively reserved for buyers who acquire over 100 'Mugshot Edition' Trump cards. To obtain Trump's complete mugshot-day suit through the latest NFT collection, one would need to purchase almost all of the 100,000 NFTs, which would roughly cost around $10 million.

Although Trump's latest endeavor is certainly an interesting and distinctive example, the idea of linking NFTs to physical collectibles is not a new concept. Over the past year, both digital fashion startups and established fashion brands have fully embraced the concept of connecting collectible NFTs with tangible items like shoes and luggage.

The integration of cutting-edge digital collectibles with tangible traditional benefits and products has been coined as 'phygital'—a term disliked by many in the digital fashion industry but has not been replaced by any other more popular term.

Mainstream brands are increasingly turning to phygital collections as a reliable strategy to engage existing customers who may not fully appreciate the worth of purely virtual items. Whereas many fashion houses first dipped their toes into crypto via metaverse activations and one-off digital collectibles during the NFT frenzy of 2021, the crypto bear market cratered enthusiasm for such experiments, turning major brands back to what they knew best: limited drops of exclusive items, with some on-chain flair sprinkled on top.

It would appear that Trump is now taking a page out of Louis Vuitton’s book, by attempting to entice his fans with something allegiant worshippers of a political leader understand better than blockchain networks and on-chain tokens: pieces of stuff that touched their idol's body. He's already done the celeb NFT thing along with tokens tied to real-world perks; now he's augmenting all of that with physical goodies for die-hard fans.

It’s unclear whether that tactic will prove successful. Just hours after Trump announced his new phygital collectibles series, his first two NFT trading card collections cratered by 30% and 41% in floor price, respectively, according to NFT Price Floor.

Perhaps Trump just hasn't found the right NFT trend to glom on to yet. Should he find himself behind bars in the coming months, the embattled politician could partner with Mattel to release a line of NFT-backed action figures depicting him engaged in a range of jailyard activities. At least for now, the NFT market is loving those sorts of merchandise collabs.