https://ift.tt/35alt4H, the NFT brand that bewitched Justin Bieber- The Cryptonomist

The brand is called InBetweeners and has become known to the world for its exclusive “bad ted”, 10,777 NFTs that reproduce Teddy Bear. With the support of Justin Bieber, the collection got an incredible boost and several Hollywood celebrities wanted their teddy bear in NFT format, including Tom Holland, the actor who plays Spiderman, and J. Balvin, singer at the top of the Spotify charts.

The birth of InBetweeners and the NFTs 

InBetweeners was born from the intuition of the young artist Gianpiero D’Alessandro and the managerial skills of Pasquale D’Avino. 

The brand was actually born in America, where D’Alessandro worked with Drew House, fashion brand founded by Justin Bieber, and that has seen among its testimonials celebrities such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Snoop Dogg and partnerships such as Nike and Netflix.

Gianpiero D’Alessandro and Pasquale D’Avino are lifelong friends and are originally from Sant’Anastasia and Cercola, two towns in the province of Naples, Italy. During a business trip to New York in November, they were contacted by some NFT engineers who were familiar with Gianpiero’s work and proposed to him to launch a collection of non-fungible tokens. The same engineers came to Italy where they spent the Christmas vacations designing the collection together with D’Alessandro and D’Avino, who knew little about the industry. 

D’Avino, an entrepreneur and founder of throwback included on the Forbes under 30 list, recalls:

“This full immersion made us appreciate the enormous potential that resided in launching an NFT project that would be both Italian and American. We might have been the first in Italy and doing it from our home town has a special flavor. The bases for a valid project were really there, but Gianpiero’s intuition to activate the media machine to support it, involving Justin Bieber, gave us an incredible boost. Everything changed in a week, even our lives, I would say. We jokingly say to each other, who would have ever imagined that a blue teddy bear could trigger all this?” 

Justin Bieber’s support

The decision to engage Justin Bieber and his 215 million followers on Instagram proves to be a genuine success, leading InBetweeners to soon gross $18 million and generate $24 million in volume. 

On OpenSea, bad teds sell for an average price of 0.80 ETH, or about $3,000. With 10,777 pieces, it’s easy to make a calculation: InBetweeners is worth about $30 million. For one of the NFT-sized teddy bears, a collector has spent up to $120,000. 

D’Alessandro explains: 

“Beyond the figures, which honestly as an artist I look at very little, what excited me the most is that I was able to put together a team of young guys, in their own way nerdy like us, with an extraordinary desire to work on the project. I’m happy as a child when I see my “bears” everywhere launched on social media halfway around the world. Plus doing all of this from our office, with late-night phone calls with some of the most beloved celebrities on the planet, makes it all incredible.”

Despite the success, Gianpiero D’Alessandro and Pasquale D’Avino are not satisfied. In fact, InBetweeners continues its growth, taking advantage of the well-known American entrepreneur in marketing and communication, John Shahidi, just inserted in the team. 

Soon there will also be the second round of the project while other collaborations promise to keep up the excitement about Bad Teds.

Celebrities and NFTs

Justin Bieber is one of the many celebrities who have become fascinated with NFTs.

Among singers, Katy Perry has launched her own collection of NFTs, while Snoop Dogg has reinvented himself with the nickname Cozimo De’ Medici, becoming a real influencer in the sector. Rock lovers, on the other hand, could go crazy for Ozzy Osbourne‘s NFTs. 

The list of NFT-addicted VIPs is long and growing day by day.