Shift Up Now will be launching two NFT collections on the Ethereum blockchain at 3:00 pm ET on April 4, 2023, in partnership with Web3-consulting company FrontRunner.
FrontRunner is a female-owned business, founded by Shift Up Now Athlete and racer Julia Landauer. In 2022, Landauer made her NASCAR Xfinity debut with sponsorship from car culture NFT community GarageXYZ and the women’s empowerment NFT community Boss Beauties. She then ran a second race with title sponsorship from ATEM Car Club, another car culture NFT community, and supporting sponsorship from House of First and OnChainMonkey.
"I'm really proud to be working with Shift Up Now to help them get involved with NFTs and leverage the power and community of Web3,” said Landauer. “This is an emerging industry that has a lot of synergies with motorsports and the motorsports community, and I'm thrilled to help Shift Up Now innovate how it supports its athletes and engages its community."
In addition to diversifying its audience, Shift Up Now has multiple goals for the campaign. By venturing into the Web3 space, it aims to provide another avenue for its audience to feel invested in its Athletes and racing programs, especially as Web3 and racing continue to intersect in more ways. This partnership provides a tangible, digital asset in return for support.
Proceeds from the NFT sales will go to funding female athletes in motorsport through the Shift Up Now mission. This inaugural campaign will feature Shift Up Now Athletes Laura Hayes, Loni Unser, Michele Abbate, Shea Holbrook, Sabre Cook, Sarah Montgomery, Hannah Grisham, Ayla Agren, Erin Vogel and Pippa Mann.
More Athletes are expected to be featured in future drops. In addition, as Shift Up Now launches further collections, the NFTs will include in-real-life utility, like meet-and-greets with drivers at racing events.
Pippa Mann, owner of Shift Up Now, stated, “I started to become more interested in the Web3 space last year as I saw more car culture based NFT brands start to gain traction online with the motorsport fan-base. There seems to be a space in this market place for beautifully shot, unique race car images, that we feel fans might want to own, and this also provided us with the opportunity to expand our audience and revenue stream as we continue to grow Shift Up Now.
“I’m hopeful that if our first drop is a success, that this will be a continuing program, where once or twice per year we’re able to offer a series of unique race car images for our audience, and use those funds the program generates to strengthen our core mission of helping talented female athletes have the funding to continue competing."
The NFT drop will feature 100 unique images of Shift Up Now Athletes and their race cars, split across two collections: The Race Car Collection and The Racer's Collection.
The Racers Collection will celebrate some of the powerhouse Shift Up Now Athletes with 20 unique, 1/1 images. The Race Car Collection will showcase the speed, intensity and beauty of the machines with 80 unique, 1/1 images.
Preview images are already starting to be showcased on the Shift Up Now social media pages, as well as some of the Athletes’.
On April 4th, both NFT Collections will be available to mint and/or purchase on the Shift Up Now website. The general public will be able to mint the NFTs with either ETH crypto currency or with a credit card, and they will sell for roughly $250 / the ETH equivalent.
Shift Up Now and FrontRunner have chosen a minting platform where anyone who is new to the Web3 space can have the comfort of purchasing an NFT with a traditional credit card.
Landauer also hosted an information webinar on Monday 3/27, and the recording is now available to download and watch here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vkBEHt6ZP3L5OBYB2BKQFNrcU9-g7UW8/view
