- Benoît Pagotto, co-founder of RTFKT, has died at age 41, according to colleagues.
- Industry figures including Steven Vasilev and Greg Solano shared tributes praising Pagotto’s creativity and character.
- Pagotto helped develop RTFKT into a leading digital fashion brand before its acquisition by Nike in 2021.
- Recent technical and legal issues affected RTFKT, including a cloud storage failure and a $5 million lawsuit.
- The cause of Pagotto’s death has not been made public, and no official obituary has been released yet.
Benoît Pagotto, co-founder of the digital fashion studio RTFKT, died unexpectedly at the age of 41, according to statements made by friends and collaborators on Sunday in Paris. The announcement came from Philippe Rodriguez, a French tech executive, who posted about Pagotto’s sudden passing on LinkedIn.
Pagotto’s colleagues and industry peers, including RTFKT co-founder Steven Vasilev and Bored Ape Yacht Club co-founder Greg Solano, posted online tributes. Vasilev wrote that “the vision, mission and inspiration [Benoît] gave to the world will live on forever.” Solano described Pagotto as “one of the kindest, funniest people I met in crypto,” and recalled his consistent generosity.
Former RTFKT CTO Samuel Cardillo remembered Pagotto as a unique and outspoken figure, calling him “a grumpy Parisian cliché, an asshole and genius” in his tribute. Philippe Rodriguez stated that Pagotto was “super creative, discreet and humble,” and quoted him as believing “that beauty could change the world.”
Pagotto was instrumental in merging high-end design, gaming, and crypto culture. He co-founded RTFKT in 2020 with Chris Le and Steven Vasilev. The company gained recognition for its virtual sneakers and collectibles, such as the Clone X × Takashi Murakami series. Nike acquired RTFKT in December 2021, leading to new digital projects that linked physical products with NFTs—digital tokens that represent ownership of items on a blockchain.
In April, several RTFKT Ethereum-based collection images temporarily disappeared because of a cloud-Hosting failure, which a former employee described as a “temporary infrastructure problem.” The issue exposed the risks of relying on centralized servers for digital assets, even though blockchain is often described as permanent storage.
That same month, RTFKT and Nike faced a NFT-collection-drops”>$5 million class-action lawsuit from NFT holders. The lawsuit alleges that Nike promoted RTFKT NFTs as premium investments and then stopped support, which plaintiffs describe as a “soft rug pull.”
As of publication, no official obituary or civil registry notice had appeared, and the cause of death has not been disclosed. Decrypt has reached out to Nike, RTFKT cofounders, and associates for comment or confirmation.
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