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As Milan stirs with fashion week and Paris catwalks prepare for Monday’s opening, it’s easy to forget that other events exist. But they do, and some offer a different kind of lens on where fashion might go next.

That’s surely not lost on Paris. Because, while next week may belong to the physical collections, on Friday, the blockchain and all things digitally collectible were hot topics, thanks to NFT Paris, a tech and culture conference that has become a magnet for artists, investors, enthusiasts and brands, like Rtfkt and Ledger.

Rtfkt, a Web 3.0 brand known best as the digital sneaker darling acquired by Nike in 2021, joined the blockchain security company to announce a brand new partnership, a new limited-edition capsule collection of devices and products and a new mission to educate the Rtfkt community and others about safeguarding their blockchain assets.

The education is vital, because as every cybersecurity expert in the world knows, there is no tech that offers 100-percent foolproof protection — not even the blockchain. Rtfkt chief operating officer NikHil Gopalani knows that firsthand. In January, he disclosed a massive phishing attack that ransacked his wallet and made off with more than $173,000 in NFTs. But regardless of the bounty, whether NFTs and crypto or online account logins, there’s a fundamental truth about tech security: The biggest point of vulnerability is often human behavior. People just can’t stop being people. But at least they can learn how to avoid some of the top threats and the solutions that can help them. They just need to be willing, even compelled, to take them up.

Enter fashion and design. Here, the collab uses them at multiple stages. For Ledger, it was a natural fit.

“[One brand] was telling us this that the link between NFTs and luxury was a very natural one, because both were about creativity, scarcity and community,” Sébastien Badault, vice president of metaverse at Ledger, told WWD. “I think that that resonates with most brands. They really feel this incredible new way to interact with their community of fans or community of users or potential buyers.”

With outreach via social media or video platforms, there’s always an intermediary between the brand and consumers, he continued. “Whereas here, I think what really resonates is this idea of having a direct line into the users and fans. And if they’re going to be doing that, if they’re going to be empowering these communities, they have to make sure that they secure them. And that’s where we play a role.”

The connection between fashion and technology is also obvious in the physical look of Ledger’s Nano, its flagship product. The hardware, which comes in two versions — the Nano S Plus and the upgraded Nano X — is a compact unit that looks like a USB thumb drive. Rtfkt and Ledger recreated it with a simple minimalism in mind, casting it in white metal. Looking at it, it is literally a clean slate.

But that belies the technical powerhouse on the inside. Nano can hold private keys, send and receive cryptocurrency and much more, and because it holds the data locally, it’s isolated from remote hacking attempts. That’s just one of several layers of security. Another is that it requires a physical button push to transact, which would foil malicious online actors. It even houses a processor, like a computer, which can calculate the security keys that protect the owner’s bitcoin or other assets.

Although it’s tempting to think of the wee gadget as a key that unlocks virtual experiences and products, Ledger prefers to describe it as a hardware blockchain wallet. It’s a place to stash information and IDs (or authentication), so that makes sense. But that may not paint the whole picture. Instead, imagine holding that key, stuffing it into a wallet with several other keys, then putting the whole billfold into a high security safe and activating lasers all around a vault that sits in a building surrounded by a moat. It’s not impervious, but it may be as close as anyone can come to it.

All that security is necessary for blockchain assets, which today often means cryptocurrency or NFTs. Because once those digital coins, designer NFT wearables or digital couture artworks are gone, there is no getting them back. If the tech becomes ubiquitous, defying the skeptics and thrilling blockchain evangelists, the stakes grow too, especially if institutions adopt it at scale. Losing a digital sneaker hardly compares to seeing financial data, medical history, academic records, driver’s licenses and more compromised.

Ledger would argue that this is what its Nanos were built to prevent.

Ian Rogers, Ledger’s chief executive officer, the blockchain looks like an inevitability. Take retail, for instance, where “token-gated commerce is on the rise [and] Shopify just announced token-gated capabilities for its platforms.” From there, he plots a trajectory that looks straightforward. But not simple.

“The reality, he said, is that all of our digital value will be tokenized in the near future.” He sees a pivotal role for his platform in enabling that, then securing it. Indeed, this is the company’s sweet spot. If everything becomes blockchain bound, and people keep tokens and keys on them all the time, and in myriad ways, design will matter more than ever, whether it’s stashed in a pocket, worn on the wrist, hanging from a necklace or tucked into purpose-built clothes.

Now that is fashion’s sweet spot.

The Rtfkt collaboration already appears to be dipping a toe into blockchain accessories with the Nano and case, a set that’s meant to be worn around the neck together.

The announcement called this as a “super rare silver pendant with the Rtfkt logo on the end caps, which will come with a Nano X. With allow lists for Clone X and Genesis Pass Holders, this more exclusive drop will be available on [Ledger] Market.”

But there’s a twist with the design: It takes cues from a previous and very popular Rtfkt NFT vial. Owners of specific NFTs could break open, or “burn,” this digital bottle to unleash new styles, colors and designs on certain Rtfkt sneaker NFTs. It’s a clever way to give those visuals a fresh new look.

The other twist is that only Pagotto’s Clone X and Genesis NFT owners can pick up the physical vial. Pn the up side, physical version of the vial, a.k.a. Nano case. inside, so it’s always close by. “It’s totally made to be a flex,” he said. If anyone else said that, from anyone else, it would be easier to write off. But he’s proven over and over that he knows what excites the community. It’s his specialty, and he has a knack for proving that he knows how to create items that people want and deliver them in a way that peaks demand, even when the product doesn’t actually exist.

Pagotto landed on fashion’s radar in 2021, when his digital sneaker NFT collab with artist Fewocious stunned the industry by pulling in more than $3 million. Within a year, Rtfkt went from a small two-person operation to a multi-million-dollar business backed by Andreessen Horowitz to a Nike company and key player in the parent company’s metaverse initiatives.

But, he makes it clear that Rtfkt is still a brand with an indie spirit, and even under a large sneaker giant, it still enjoys autonomy. Its ties with Ledger is a good example. Their relationship has evolved over time, but still allows room for innovative approaches, without being micromanaged by the rigid rules of a huge corporation.

Indeed, even in the way they offer these products speaks to both of their DNA, not conventional retail or e-commerce.

To purchase one of the Nanos, customers must buy the related NFT first through Ledger Market, and then redeem it for the physical product, only 10,000 of which will be available for each model. The limited quantity speaks to the rarity. The Nano case will be even rarer — fleavailable to holders of Rtfkt’s Clone X and Genesis NFTs. That’s just for starters. More products, experiences and opportunities will follow at a later time, the partners promised.

On the surface, the companies appear to hang at the blockchain’s opposite ends, but the differences may be a strength and there’s enough overlap where it matters, namely in their attention to design and fashion. Ledger, apart from being a hardware and security company, also runs a marketplace called Ledger Market, as well as other services and devices — such as the touchscreen-enabled Nano Stax, a larger device that was created by Tony Fadell, the renowned designer behind Apple’s legendary iPod.

Many of those elements fold into a design-centric strategy, and this powers an entire Ledger ecosystem that spans enterprise to consumer, but manages to appeal to both pragmatists and aesthetes.

Where Ledger brings technical and security expertise, Rtfkt has an apparent talent for building community and inherently understanding its values, needs and wants. Those types of skills have never been more valuable, particularly for a fashion sector that has been hyper-focused on community. Smart companies will be watching the way crypto native brands and other emerging businesses operate among gamers, metaverse clans and NFT communities. Because these are important lessons, and those teachings that could come to define Web 3.0, the metaverse or whatever the virtual or online world brings.

As for consumers, if the gap in knowledge of blockchain fundamentals grows, a new type of digital divide could be on the horizon. Rtfkt and Ledger seem to sense that, because they’re making the tech, safety and security education a core part of the partnership.

Future collaborations, they said, will come with experiences geared toward sharing and distributing knowledge through “Rtfkt Quests.” Ledger established its own “Ledger Quests,” which rewards the NFT learning process by awarding crypto. The goal through these other efforts, from crypto basics to blockchain security and safety, is to demystify the tech. Even make the learning process fun.

It remains to be seen if they can pull it off, especially since blockchain security and crypto education can come off as dry, technical and abstract. But if anyone can move the needle to fun, funny and appealing, it might be a group passionate about community, design and technology.