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Learn how your clothing is made with the Origin Thread NFTs on Cardano
Sustainable ADA | Aug 23, 2022
The Origin Thread is using NFTs to connect its customers with how their clothes are made.
You can view the NFT of their first shirt and the video journey here:
https://pool.pm/asset1vw28a3f9rx2507a2z02580ndj067l5e594zv2x
Mission & Vision
Their mission is to make fully transparent sourcing practices the new norm in the fashion industry and by doing so eliminate destructive and exploitative sourcing practices at the same time.
The first Origin Thread clothing collection has just launched. Every shirt is accompanied with an NFT.
The NFT proves the authenticity of the garment, acts as a permanent and fully transparent record of sourcing information, and contains a video of the shirt’s creation.
You can view the shirt here: www.originthread.com/bagru/shirt/01/buy
The owner of a shirt can scan the NFC tag attached on the inside of the front pocket to view their NFT.
Origin Thread is also exploring what a blockchain native brand looks like. The story of the brand is minted on-chain in their “ORIGINS” series and owned by their customers as NFTs. The Origin Thread team’s first two sourcing trips were to India so they could meet with suppliers. These were turned into an NFT series that helped fund development.
Team behind the project:
The Founder of Origin Thread is Will Etheridge.
“The fashion industry is destructive by default. Every stage of the creation of most garments is exploitative to both natural and human resources. From the destruction of natural habitats from use of pesticides through to abhorrent labour conditions faced by most garment workers.
The challenge is that most people have no connection to how their clothes are made. With no transparency and accountability, large brands can sweep their damaging sourcing practices under the rug.
The blockchain allows us to imagine new ways of storing and sharing information and value. NFTs. As well as storing media such as videos and photos of a garments creation, the supply chain information can be stored permanently on-chain. Combining the two allows for both an emotional and intellectual connection to be made between the owner of a garment and the people, places and processes that have made it.
The first shirt we have released is a MVP. A first iteration of what an NFT connected item of clothing might look like and how we might record and share supply chain information on-chain. In time, we hope to make every stage of our manufacturing process verifiable on-chain. An idea of where we’re going can be found in our recent catalyst proposal here “
https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/419487
Thoughts on the space?
“We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what will be made possible. The JPEGs are about so, so much more than the JPEGs. We’re excited to see people develop new use cases beyond an IPFS link to a monkey picture.”
Were there a series of events that led you to create/join your team and project?
“I’ve always been interested in craft processes and the provenance of items. I lived in India for some time in my early 20s and on my return spent a summer selling hand printed shirts made in India at music festivals across the UK. Whilst I didn’t have the cajones to follow through and set up a business at the time, I always remembered the joy of connecting my customers with the story of their clothing’s creation.”
“In the years that followed I became increasingly interested in the impact our purchasing decisions have. At the same time I began to discover and dive deeper into the transformative possibilities enabled by the blockchain.”
“In 2021 I decided to begin exploring the two things. How could the blockchain be used to disrupt the fashion industry? Following that question led to the creation of Origin Thread and some time later, the release of our first range of clothing.”
Why Cardano of all the Blockchains?
Origin Thread chose Cardano because of its amazing community, and because it is decentralized and secure. They believe that Cardano works reliably, and are impressed with the proof of stake mechanism. In their opinion “the multi native asset design is the best in the business”
The Origin Thread NFT’s
Origin Thread has found great fabric suppliers in India. The shirts are made with organic cotton and sourced from Herbal Fab in Ahmedabad. They are hand printed using a centuries old craft technique in Bagru, India.
In the spring of 2022, the Origin Thread NFT team traveled to India to create a film of the printing process. They worked with a brilliant young filmmaker named Rajat Pandit to shoot the film.
You can view a longer version of this film sold as an NFT along with the first ever shirt here.
www.originthread.com/origins/002/01
Some blockages during the development process was finding a good cut and sew supplier. This took their team some time and it ended up being the most difficult part of the process.
When you are making physical products, the cost of iteration is much higher. It was essential for Origin Thread that the shirt would be of extremely high quality.
They feel they only have “one shot at wowing our first customers”. After their team conducted some trial and error they found the right partner and were really thrilled with the end result.
When approaching the process of creating a digital token accompanied with each shirt. The Origin Thread team spent a lot of time thinking about how it would display.
You can view a minted token here and see the incredible work they put into how the origins of the materials would be added to the metadata.
https://pool.pm/asset1dcp6swwd58dcmaty0q97g630nqp420yst8qhk5
They made a vertical video to display well on mobile devices after scanning the NFC.
Here you can find the sourcing information. Which is written into an HTML file, and is pinned to IPFS for best viewing in pool.pm. Additionally, each token references a ”master” supply information token. Because of this, it writes all of the sourcing information directly on-chain.
They decided to use this master token approach instead of writing this data to each token. This was so they could help save on-chain resources (inspired by unsig 00000).
Are there any plans to collaborate with anyone in the Cardano or NFT ecosystem?
We hope to expand the team in the coming year. If you are interested in what we’re doing, please drop an email to will@originthread.com
How did you create this NFT?
NMKR.io
How many in your collection are minted?
First shirt – 60, ORIGINS/001 – 21, ORIGINS/002 – 24, LOOKBOOK/01 – 15
Who owns the rights, physical or intellectual, of the NFT and its contents?
Origin Thread
What about royalties?
5% royalties to Origin Thread for all current tokens.
The NFTs utility?
Acts as a permanent store of sourcing information. Holders of ORIGINS tokens receive priority access and pricing for all future releases.
Origin Thread’s connection to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call for action by all countries. This enables countries to create global partnerships that work towards achieving these goals. The goal is to achieve the SDGs, which are built upon decades of work by countries and the UN.
Blockchain technology is a key technology for the SDGs because it enables stakeholders globally to have the ability to track, record, and share data that is immutable, timestamped, and verifiable.
Origin Thread has a direct connection to SGD 1 – No Poverty, SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 – Climate Action, and SDG 15 Life on Land.
The Origin Thread Project Catalyst Fund 9 proposal will allow for more future collections with more astounding craft textile suppliers from all around the world.
Learn more about Origin Thread:
- Vote for our catalyst proposal https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/419487
- Buy a shirt or an NFT www.originthread.com
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OriginThread
- Website: www.originthread.com
Get more involved:
Think about where your clothes have come from and who has made them. Do you feel proud of that story? Is it something you would want to share? If not, why?
Inexpensive clothing very often comes with a very high cost for the people and planet, particularly in the developing world. Think about your purchases in terms of cost per wear. Buy clothes that you want to treasure and that will last a long time
Vote for our catalyst proposal https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/419487
Buy a shirt or an NFT www.originthread.com