PLBY Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLBY) (“PLBY Group”), owner of Playboy, the iconic lifestyle brand, today unveiled its newest collection of NFTs: Playboy Rabbitars. Paying homage to its founding year 1953, Playboy will release 11,953 unique Rabbitars, 3D rabbit characters, in NFT form. Inspired by Playboy’s iconography, heritage, and lore, each Rabbitar will possess unique traits – some more rare than others – and will serve as keys to a reimagined Playboy Club, giving owners access to benefits like special members-only events, merchandise, artwork, and exclusive artist collaborations.
The Rabbitars were created by Playboy’s dedicated Web3 Innovation team, in partnership with Possible Studios and WENEW, the art studio and blockchain technology company co-founded by Michael Winklemann and Michael Figge – with the goal of creating a fun and valuable world for both new and experienced members of the NFT community. In the context of the metaverse, the Rabbitars are NFTs that live on the Ethereum Blockchain as ERC-721 tokens hosted on IPFS (better known as the InterPlanetary File System—the metaverse’s decentralized file storage system).
As the mythology goes, the Rabbitars are a rare species of rabbit known for their extraordinary speed, cultural sophistication, razor-sharp wit, inimitable intellect, fantastic fashion sense, and in some cases, sexual prowess. Each Rabbitar is generated from 175+ possible traits, including fur, facial features, ears and headwear, apparel, accessories, occupation-related characteristics, and more. Playboy iconography is woven throughout the collection, and some of the rarest Rabbitars and Rabbitar traits are inspired by significant aspects of Playboy’s art and editorial history.
“Distributed ledger technology is revolutionizing how fans and consumers interact with brands today. At Playboy, we’re committed to moving out of the era of merely acquiring followers and into an era of building thoughtful communities where each member has a voice. Our goal is to deliver meaningful opportunities for ownership and unique value. The Rabbitars mark the beginning of true blockchain-based membership for Playboy. Just as Playboy Club keys gave millions of members a chance to step into the sophisticated lifestyle that the Playboy brand represents, NFTs today can do the same and so much more.” – Jamal Dauda, VP, Blockchain Innovation
“Playboy has a nearly 70-year history in groundbreaking contemporary art, art direction and graphic design and it all started with a playful, sophisticated rabbit, otherwise known as the Playboy Rabbit Head logo. So when it came to visualizing the Rabbitar world, our goal was to pay homage to our legacy in the arts while tapping into the spirit of innovation upon which it was built to create something entirely new and special for the NFT community. Some of the rarest Rabbitars are inspired by iconic moments in Playboy’s art and editorial history, and nods to Playboy heritage and iconography are woven throughout the collection so that every collector can have a piece of the Playboy brand in their MetaMask wallet.” – Liz Suman – VP Art Curation & Editorial
Playboy views blockchain as a new technology layer to expand the ways consumers can interact with the Playboy lifestyle and as a key tool for building Playboy’s new membership offerings. Playboy entered the world of NFTs and blockchain technology in the Spring of 2021 with its genesis NFT drop called Liquid Summer: a collection of digital artworks created in collaboration with the artist Slimesunday. The first drop was distributed on Nifty Gateway and sold out in under 3 minutes. Since then, Playboy has continued expanding in the world of NFTs, blockchain and Web3 through collaborations with artists such as Shantell Martin, art drops on SuperRare, Metaverse events in Decentraland and with an NFT artist grant program in partnership with the Sevens Foundation. This September, Playboy launched its dedicated Discord server called ‘The Rabbit Hole’ to deepen engagement and discourse with the NFT community. Playboy is hosting a series of weekly talks curated by Playboy’s VP of Blockchain Innovation, Jamal Dauda, in conversation with leading voices in the NFT community.
Playboy Rabbitars will be available for purchase for 0.1953 Ethereum on the official Playboy Rabbitar site using crypto or U.S. dollars (USD) via three different sales: A pre-sale for whitelisted Eth-paying collectors will take place Sunday, October 24th-Tuesday, October 26th. The public sale for Fiat/USD-paying collectors will take place Tuesday, October 26th (following the end of the whitelist sale). The public sale for Eth-paying collectors will take place Wednesday, October 27th. All collectors will need an Ethereum wallet regardless of whether they are paying with Ethereum or USD. Eth whitelisted collectors may purchase up to two Rabbitars during the pre-sale. Collectors may purchase up to 10 Rabbitars during each of the two public sales. Complete instructions for how to reserve and purchase a Rabbitar can be found in the “How do I get a Rabbitar?” section of the official Playboy Rabbitar site.
