Last week, Gary Vaynerchuk's long-awaited NFT project VeeFriends dropped and practically shut the internet down. The collection features numerous doodles from the king of content himself, each captured by an alliterative adjective-noun: "Adaptable Alien," "Adventurous Astronaut," "Tenacious Termite", to name a few. One of the most beloved characters in the collection—immediately following its announcement—was Perspective Pigeon.
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Jeff Staple and GaryVee's VeeFriends Team Up on Streetwear Capsule
For the streetwear aficionados out there, there are few names more recognizable than Jeff Staple, who famously uses his iconic Staple Pigeon in many of his designs. Fans of GaryVee and Staple alike drew the connection immediately, tagging Jeff in the comments of the post. This IG image sparked the collaboration, which happened incredibly quickly. GaryVee told HYPEBEAST: “I’ve been a fan of Jeff’s work for a long time and I immediately DM’ed him and we got on a call that day."
We spoke with Andy Krainak, Executive Vice President at Team GaryVee, who was immensely involved in the VeeFriends launch and, now, the collaboration with Jeff Staple. In our conversation, similarly to Gary, he emphasized how rapidly the collaboration came about. “It’s cool to see, for how notable Jeff is, how easy he’s been to work with and how quick this was able to happen," Krainak told ONE37pm. He went on to say: "It's only been three weeks from that Instagram post to today's launch." That's the digital age we live in.
If you're trying to cop the gear, the Staple x GaryVee collection is available now exclusively on staplepigeon.com for the 55 hours following its launch earlier this morning. Additionally, all of those who own a VeeFriends Perspective Pigeon NFT will receive the collection for free. Part of what made VeeFriends so great was how much utility it provided to buyers, and this drop continues to build on that ethos.
“My great hope is that people look back at this in two or three years and say, ‘wow, that was one of the early indications of how we could do things creatively with NFTs and collaborations,’” Vaynerchuk told HYPEBEAST. This collaboration allows NFT drops to continue to evolve after their release; NFTs are about building an ongoing community. The Staple x GaryVee collaboration will surely be the first of many like it.