Stadium Goods’ New York City flagship store will host a four-day event later this month celebrating “the intersection of sneakers and streetwear and Web3.”
Set to coincide with the larger, Polygon- and OpenSea-sponsored NFT.NYC event, .IRL by Stadium Goods will kick off June 20 and include panel discussions, product drops, popup shops and parties. Attendees will include streetwear icon and Stapleverse founder Jeff Staple, Ambush co-founder Verbal and Highsnobiety co-founder Jeff Carvalho.
“.IRL by Stadium Goods is us planting our flag as an amplifier of the culture and community surrounding sneakers and streetwear, not only on Howard Street, and the places where we sell, but in Web3 and whatever it becomes.” Laura Sartor, chief product and strategy officer, Stadium Goods, said in a statement.
A day-long “block party” on June 21 will act as the event’s “keynote” and include a meetup of Gutter Cat Gang members. Similar to the Bored Ape and CryptoPunk NFT collections, the Gutter Cats are a series of randomly generated characters. The tokens range in value, with those that possess rarer attributes—only 1 percent have laser eyes, while 25 percent are depicted on a green background—generally fetching higher prices.
The lowest-priced Gutter Cat listing currently has an asking price of 4.99 Ether, roughly $9,000. One of the rarest Gutter Cats sold in August for 58.88 Ether, or more than $190,000 at the time, and again in December for 45 Ether, more than $178,000. Today, 45 Ether is worth around $80,000
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The Gutter Cat Gang consists of the roughly 1,800 accounts that own at least one of the Gutter Cat NFTs. In May, the group announced it would partner with Puma to sponsor “Team Gutter Cats” for The Basketball Tournament on ESPN in July. The 64-team, single-elimination event will see teams compete for a $1 million cash prize. Team Gutter Cats’ “general managers” will recruit “top-tier talent” who will wear custom Gutter Cat Gang jerseys during the tournament, it said.
Around the corner from Stadium Goods, the sneaker-enthusiast and lifestyle media brand Hypebeast is currently operating its first “Hypegolf Clubhouse.” Open through mid-July, the popup store serves as “a place of discovery for the game of golf through a modern and cultural lens,” Hypegolf—Hypebeast’s pre-existing golf community and platform—said.
The clubhouse is divided into three areas, a glass-enclosed apparel installation designed to emulate “an infinite playing field,” a perimeter of wood displays and furniture “for a more casual social environment” and a golf simulator.
The popup houses “close to 20” sportswear brands and lifestyle offerings, including Malbon Golf, Metalwood Studio and Bogey Boys, as well as emerging golf brands which have not yet established a physical presence in New York. After hours, the Hypegolf Clubhouse is hosting Hypetalk panel discussions, golf lessons and viewing parties.
In celebration of the popup’s launch, Hypegolf unveiled an exclusive nine-piece unisex collection spotlighting the “growing influence of streetwear, fashion and youth culture to usher in a new era of the sport,” it said. It includes polka-dot print tees, Hypegolf-embroidered polos, golf shorts and hats.