Triumph is diving into the NFT space with a series of collectables inspired by the King of Cool himself, Steve McQueen.
Inspired by a real-life, large format portrait of Steve McQueen by acclaimed artist Michael Kalish, Triumph's “King of Cool Racing Team” drop, is a limited collection of 1000 Triumph Motorcycles / Steve McQueen unique digital art collectibles. The collection has been created by Verified Labs and Immersive Enterprise Laboratories, and releases Friday, July 14th at 12 pm ET | 9 am PT at McQueen.ThetaDrop.com
Kicking things off last year, artist Michael Kalish created a 25’ x 25’ original portrait of Steve McQueen, but this wasn't any paint and canvas affair. Kalish is known for his creative use of mixed mediums, regularly taking inspiration from his subjects to use relevant elements from their personal life for the creation of larger-than-life tribute art pieces. Fittingly, for his portrait celebrating the legacy of Steve McQueen, Kalish used a Triumph motorcycle ridden by Chase McQueen, grandson of Steve, to apply the paint to the canvas.
With the painting successfully completed, Kalish turned his attention to the bike he had used as a paintbrush, a 2022 Triumph Bonneville T100 in Jet Black. Kalish adorned the Bonneville with the same colours laid down on the canvas using a splatter technique. The result is a truly distinct one-of-one Michael Kalish-painted Triumph modern classic with bright splashes of white, light blue and yellow starkly contrasting the original jet-black scheme.
Following the incredible result of Kalish’s vision for an artistic tribute to the iconic actor and motorcycle rider, the family of McQueen along with Kalish and Triumph Motorcycles were inspired to create a similarly premium artistic tribute that could be available for McQueen, Triumph, and Kalish enthusiasts. By creating a set of generative Web3 digital collectIbles, 1,000 fans worldwide will be able to own a unique piece of digital art which authentically represents the timeless style and boundary-pushing spirit of Triumph, McQueen, and Kalish, all at an accessible initial price point of $99 USD.
Entrusted to deliver the vision into the digital world, Triumph turned to award-winning Web3 partner, Verified Labs, who were trusted to help deliver a boundary-breaking collection of digital art. At their recommendation, the final set will be a set of 1,000 unique generative, interactive, and fully 3D 360-degree NFT’s, the first of its kind ever released on the ThetaDrop platform.
To bring the innovative concept to life Web3 animation studio, Immersive Enterprise Laboratories (IEL), first designed a fully three-dimensional virtual garage where owners will discover a Triumph Bonneville T100 motorcycle, rider, and digital recreation of the original Kalish portrait of Steve McQueen. IEL used Unreal Engine to build the garage and each of the elements within, making the collection truly 3D from 360 degrees, which can be viewed within virtual reality headsets or proudly showcased in spatial reality displays via a FBX file.
Then to make the collectables interactive, IEL produced an engaging animation which can be triggered by the NFT’s owner. Upon interacting with the T100 sitting on a pool of paint in the centre of the garage, the bike’s rider starts the engine, puts the motorcycle in gear, and begins to do a burnout, which sprays paint against the wall of the garage which reveals a portrait of Steve McQueen just like the real-life Kalish original as the paint drips off the wall.
Finally, to make each of the 1,000 unique, IEL used a generative process to assign colour variations on a handful of elements within the garage, making no two NFTs from the collection the same. Elements that change range from the bike paint scheme or a splatter effect on it, to the colour of the rider’s Triumph Bradden Air Jacket and colour of the McQueen portrait. The combinations of colour variants make certain NFTs from the collection more or less rare, depending on how many in the collection share attributes for each of the elements.
EASY TO ACQUIRE AND INCENTIVES FOR COLLECTORS An important consideration of the project was for the collection was both accessible to interested enthusiasts, and that each of the collectables also presented value for its owner.
To ensure that any interested fan around the world could secure their very own “King of Cool Racing Team” digital collectable, ThetaDrop was selected as the marketplace for the initial drop. Key advantages of the ThetaDrop marketplace are that it is user-friendly and does not require cryptocurrency to purchase or trade NFTs. Those key benefits will more easily allow first-time NFT buys to join the “King of Cool Racing Team”, with a much lower barrier to entry than other marketplaces.
To support the long-term value proposition, the collection will be limited to only 1,000 unique versions of the NFT. Also, to incentivize trading of the collectable, which supports an increase in value for owners, there will be a trio of challenges with high-value prizes attached to each challenge.
OWN THE ULTIMATE COLLECTIBLE
For only the most enthusiastic fan, there will be the rare version of the “King of Cool Racing Team” collectables paired with the actual 2022 Triumph Bonneville T100 with original splatter paint design which was ridden by Chase McQueen to create the original large format Michael Kalish portrait of Steve McQueen available for auction.
The “most rare” version of the digital collectible in fact brings the set to a total of 1,001 unique NFTs and will be the only one in the set with the motorcycle in black with the splatter paint design which matches the real-world motorcycle. This rare version also features the exact reproduction of the original Kalish portrait.
This ultimate collectable combination will be auctioned for a two-week period on ThetaDrop. The starting bid for this priceless one-of-one Michael Kalish-painted motorcycle ridden by Chase McQueen paired with the rare “King of Cool Racing Team” will be $15,000 USD. The pair will be awarded to the highest bidder of the virtual open auction at the end of the two-week period.