“TRUST YOUR VSN” for web3
Once in every blue moon, an organic and grassroots phenomenon takes off and sweeps the culture by storm.
It was almost overnight it seems that Marlon Watts and Nick Clark’s vision came to life for the iconic brand WRLDNVSN, at least from my perspective. I started slowly seeing the classic Jesus tees pop up everywhere, (even in my documentary) in the least expected of places. However, the reality is, that overnight success is far from the truth.
Constantly following these guys quickly learned that to scale their business to 2 physical locations, a huge production facility in Ruston, Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of social media followers, hiring a full-time content production team, and endorsements from legendary rappers like Rick Ross took these young entrepreneurs to the 12 years. The tried and true story of “we started this in our dorm room ”, is a Zuckerberg-like epic that never gets old. A truly inspirational tale as the brothas started with 300 dollars and 12 shirts. A place of humble beginnings to a global brand, one in which they consistently push their followers to “TRUST IN YOUR VSN”. They have even gotten into the consulting business, showing exactly they got to the point they are, through a produced podcast and Youtube shorts documenting their lives as young black entrepreneurs managing a dope-ass team and a global-ass brand.
All this naturally makes me wonder… What is next for WRLDNVSN? What is the world that they envision? If they were able to create their own world from scratch reflective of their values and likeness what would it look like, what would it feel like?
NVSN A NEW WRLD
The early years of this new decade have marked a vibrant frenzy of the “novel” NFT/Crypto obsession. Everyone and their momma is talking about what cryptos people should buy, which honestly is quite scary, being that regular laypeople are giving each other financial advice. But all of that aside, the mass ideological adoption from not only people but Fortune 500 brands is showing a promising future for web3. Notable brand giants like Nike, Adidas Balenciaga, and Louis Vuitton are making evangelistic moves to trail-blaze the metaverse for the fashion industry by strengthening their brands with community, culture, and collectibles.
My only question is where does my hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana come in the mix. A city of eclectic culture, the birthplace of globally recognized cultural products; jazz, hip-hop, fashion trends, etc.
My thesis is that WRLDNVSN can lead the way, by creating their own VSN in established virtual worlds like Decentraland, The Sandbox, and Somnium Space.
Virtual content creators and web3 evangelists have literally created future worlds for the masses under their noses, and at the tip of their fingers. It is only a matter of time before interoperable meta verses become the norm among internet users across the globe, so while we are still early to the party New Orleans entrepreneurs should pioneer the aesthetic of authentic raw New Orleans culture, for my proudly biased prediction is that our cultural taste-making will provide a wealth of opportunities for the artist, creators, and entrepreneurs in the “Big Easy”.
OPPORTUNITE$ inside the Metaverse.
If you can think of any opportunities to make money in the physical world, those same opportunities likely exist in the digital world, and the metaverse as well.
Everything down to fashion shows, launch parties for album debut and even peep shows for the naughty onlooker, there is no shortage of capitalizable experiences that metaverse users have exposure to.
One notable creator/curator born and bred in New Orleans, Brent Craige, otherwise known as Dr. Clipz/NFTeacher is a savant educating creators to capitalize from web3 environments, with his own metaverse academy headquartered in Decentraland.
Dr. Clipz provides the opportunity to use his NFT Decentraland wearable for admission into his academy, which enables the student investor to learn to navigate the metaverses and web3 spaces, one on one consulting opportunities, and the ability to resell the wearable jacket to others for admission into his academy.
WRLDNVSN and other New Orleans creators should offer similar services in the metaverse, that they are already offering on different platforms? Their brand is already a cultural phenomenon and has established clout and social capital. WRLDNVSN would bring value to the web3 community by introducing/onboarding their massive existing audience to web3, and expanding their commercial networks by opening doors to different web3 platforms with a simple wearable NFT. The possibilities are endless after this.
There is also an added benefit of being exposed to the web3 community that I have noticed firsthand. Web3 creators all have the commonality that they are pioneers more than the average person, and creators have built a community around that idea despite the that they may disagree on the modalities of different projects. The thing that brings them together is the value, and what web3 stands for. Decentralization, ownership, and equity in the products that you make and distribute to participants who all share in hosting the new environment that enables so many more creators to make money from infrastructure that disrupts our current internet model. Creators are incentivized from the fabric of the web3 internet (blockchains, and smart contracts), to create, and build communal equity into projects and distribute them, something that activists have heralded for centuries in the black community.
The time to sow the seeds of web3 is now. No matter who you are, whether big brand, large corporation or hometown hero, we all need to jump aboard this ship. Your VSN awaits.
