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Discover the easiest way to offer prints and merch to collectors

November 9, 2022
Vinciane Jones

Johnny Depp and Shepard Fairey gave their NFT collectors access to exclusive physical items. Here's how you can do the same.

As the world spends more time online, brands and creators are interacting with their communities both digitally and offline. The distinction between physical and digital creators is becoming increasingly blurred. In the past year, artists including Damien Hirst, Shepard Fairey, and Philip Colbert have all ventured into the NFT space after building their practice in the physical art world. Likewise, digitally native creators like Beeple, Fvckrender, and FEWOCiOUS have all created both physical and digital works.

Shepard Fairey, OG Obey V.1, 2021, NFT
Shepard Fairey, OG Obey V.1, 2021, NFT

However, despite the popularity of NFTs and digital collectibles in recent years, owning a physical item is still exciting for many collectors. Meanwhile, for creators and brands, physical products can offer new creative possibilities, provide a way of rewarding collectors and generate new streams of revenue. Popular NFT collections like Moonbirds offer physical merch to their NFT holders in the form of stickers, snapbacks, socks, and more. Artist Philip Colbert sells t-shirts, limited prints, vases, and soft toys inspired by his Lobster universe through his online store.

From designing to fulfillment and shipping, selling physical items can be a time-consuming task. Luckily, with print on demand and dropshipping, you can get started in a few simple steps. We’ve teamed up with Prodigi, a leading print on demand platform, to share just how easy it can be.

Prodigi helps creators and businesses easily transform digital images into printed products. From stickers to clothing and phone cases, you’ll find all the choices you need to create merch for your community. If you want to provide high-quality prints, you can choose from a range of fine art or photo print papers and rest easy knowing that Prodigi specialises in fine art printing. The majority of Prodigi’s custom products will be ready for dropshipping in under 48 hours and, where possible, they use organic, recycled, plastic-free, and sustainably sourced materials as well as eco inks. Their international customer support team also offers 24-hour email support and are contactable via live chat.

Easily sell physical products on your storefront

If you’ve got your own storefront on Shopify, you can integrate the Prodigi Shopify App into your store to print on demand. Orders placed on your store will automatically trigger the print on demand request, and the order processing is fully automated so you never need to worry about it. The Prodigi app also generates product previews, lets you edit your designs, and set your own pricing.

If you want to elevate your products and build trust with collectors, you could even use the Verisart App to automatically generate a Certificate of Authenticity for each product.

Reward NFT collectors with exclusive products

Have you released NFTs and want to give your collectors something special? Tokengating is a popular way of rewarding NFT collectors by granting them exclusive access to specific products. NFT collectors just need to connect their wallet to prove they own the correct NFT before they can order the product. Johnny Depp recently enabled his NFT holders to claim exclusive physical prints of their NFTs through tokengating. Similarly, Shepard Fairey rewarded his Degenerate/Regenerate NFT collectors with the ability to purchase a limited edition hoodie.

Johnny Depp's Never Fear Truth NFT website showing his physical print with a Verisart holographic QR sticker
Johnny Depp's Never Fear Truth NFT website showing his physical print with a Verisart holographic QR sticker

Print on demand can be a great option to easily provide a reward to your NFT collectors or loyal community members. Stickers, t-shirts, hoodies, prints, and phone cases are all great ways of bringing digital creations into the physical world.