Garage Italia, the creative hub specialized in customization and restomod projects, enters the blockchain arena with a series of NFTs born for its vehicles.For a company with a highly digital and cross-medial approach, Garage Italia’s passage to NFTs was a natural, spontaneous evolution, shifting the focus from the physical vehicle towards its digital counterpart, conceiving a functional representation of NFTs in the automotive sector. This set of unique and non-fungible tokens embodies the right to enjoy custom-born creativity, and validates the authenticity and exclusivity of the creative project. During a vehicle’s purchase or customization process handled by Garage Italia, the client will also receive his or her very own ‘tokenized’ digital version of it.
We are currently facing a profoundly transformative era in terms of the art market and, in general, of collectibles. A phenomenon experts state is destined to grow over the years. With the automotive field raising questions in relation to a car’s loss of value in time, NFTs have the power to certify the originality of the ones intervened upon by Garage Italia, which could be perceived as an added value in case of resale.“Creativity, uniqueness and originality have always been fundamental assets for Garage Italia. This approach to blockchain technology is perfectly in line with its DNA as a receptor of new trends, and I am proud to bring this technological innovation to the automotive sector”, comments Lapo Elkann, Founder and Creative Chairman at Garage Italia.By blocking the ownership of an intangible good, which may be bought or sold, conditions have been set in place to revolutionize the system of gatekeepers – galleries, auction houses, collectors, consultants and curators – controlling the collector’s market, hence creating a parallel one. The blockchain that currently supports this type of token with continuity is Ethereum, the one chosen by Garage Italia to exchange its NFTs.“Among the initiative’s goals, we certainly aim to attract a new generation of collectors and enthusiasts, who tend to avoid the traditional automotive market. Many fashion and new luxury brands are testing the use of NFTs as a marketing tool in order to engage a younger and digital-oriented audience, however, we think this could be a truly big change for the automotive sector, especially due to the fact not much has been done until today. Also, we believe it to be a strongly strategic move to experience the blockchain dynamics first-hand to fuel the consultancy activity we carry out daily for brands and companies, and that constitutes an important part of Garage Italia’s business even though it isn’t in the public eye” states Enrico Vitali, CEO of Garage Italia.This is just a starting point in terms of experimenting with the launch of NFTs branded by Garage Italia, with the idea of exploring different fields of application so to evaluate potential collaborations with emerging artists and digital creators. This is how Garage Italia means to lay the foundations for the creation of tokens that are increasingly refined and coherent with the storytelling of its current and future restomod projects, as the non-conservative restoration of the Datsun 240Z or the Alfa Romeo Spider “Duetto” expected in 2022.
