This Creator Commerce Platform Wants to Make NFT Creation as Easy as T-shirt Design

Non-fungible tokens have been touted as a force of democratization in the ownership of valuable assets. But ask someone outside the world of crypto how to make one and they’ll likely to draw a blank. Creator tech merchandise platform Spring wants to demystify the process of NFT creation with the launch of Mint-on-Demand, a proprietary NFT creation technology that lets creators design tokens without upfront costs, such as minting fees. Fans can buy the tokens without a crypto wallet (though to resell them, they have to go elsewhere). “We’re trying to create that kind of iPhone moment for NFTs," said CEO Chris Lamontagne, adding that he wants to make the fragmented space of NFT creation more accessible. "We took our technology and made it super simple, super easy to get it to market." While other technologies exist to make NFTs, there is no major player and the NFT creation space is ripe for innovation, said Jeremy Epstein, CMO of the company developing the Radix cryptocurrency. “This problem is front and center,” he said. But like other parts of the metaverse, Mint-on-Demand’s ultimate adoption will depend on the ability of new—and still ephemeral—technologies to take hold. Finding the consumers and getting creators on board Spring argues its total addressable market size is massive—the 8.5 million creators on the platforms have a total of 17.6 billion fans, who could all be potential NFT customers. But despite their hype, NFTs are still relatively niche. Open Sea, the largest NFT marketplace, only reached 1 million traders last month (counted as a registered user who has made at least one transaction), according to Dune Analytics. “Relative to the awareness and buzz, the adoption is super, super early,” said co-founder of influencer agency Whalar, Neil Waller. Waller estimates around 10% of Whalar's creators would be involved in the Web3 and NFT space, with only around a quarter of those actively creating projects themselves. Mint-on-Demand has been in the works for about a year, supported by a team of between 15 and 20 people from both outside and inside the company. The tech is made possible with blockchain partner Bondly, which relies on the Polygon blockchain. Spring has integrations with platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which let creators sell directly to fans on the app. Creators using Spring include TikTokers Pinky Patel and Modern Warrior, who have 4.6 million and 3.2 million followers, respectively. Spring says around 40,000 to 60,000 designs are launched on the site every day. The ABCs of NFTs: A Guide to Non-Fungible Tokens, the Cryptomedia Trend Bringing Ownership to the Internet While Spring has diversified its product offerings from tees to more digital offerings before, moving into NFTs has required more education of its creator base. “[Creators knew] there was a movement happening with NFTs,” Lamontagne said, but they still wondered how to get involved. "The first 12 months were around education.” Spring has been testing Mint-on-Demand since June 2021 with a select group of creators but is not making it widely accessible until today. How creators and Spring can profit from NFTs Spring makes money on the transactions, not the upfront costs. For NFTs, it will take a roughly 30% cut, smaller than that it takes from physical merchandise, Lamontagne says. For a hoodie, Spring might take around 45%. NFTs cannot be resold and traded on the Spring platform and Spring does not take a cut of reselling transactions. As a community-based commerce platform, the company is well-positioned to sell NFTs, which at their core are about access to digital communities, said Lamontagne. There are at least three use cases of creators selling NFTs that correspond to various milestones (like subscriber count), allowing early fans to have a collectible to show their OG status and creating digital products which mirror physical merchandise. The most powerful use cases for creators in the NFT space are outside of artwork and intellectual property, said Waller, but instead allowing creators to sell access to events and communities or to fundraise, perhaps allowing fans to purchase some of the ownership of creators’ artistic products (a nascent practice in the music industry). Spring’s value will lie in its ability to support these more incipient uses of NFTs, Waller said. "As a creator, you’re also looking for a more direct connection with your audience but you're always at the whim of the algorithm,” said Waller. “An NFT is another way of direct contact with your audience.” BMW Catalogues Combustion Engine Noises as NFTs