A comparison that has been heard repeatedly over the last few months is that buying NFTs makes people much freer in the metaverse , which is basically like buying clothes or shoes. Perhaps that is why the well-known brand Nike is now preparing to make the leap to the metaverse. The sportswear giant has just announced the acquisition of RTFKT Studios, which it refers to as “a leading brand that harnesses cutting-edge innovation to deliver cutting-edge apparel and accessories that fuse culture and gaming.”
Last April, RTFKT collaborated with teen artist FEWOCiOUS to sell real sneakers combined with virtual sneakers, and managed to sell over 600 pairs/NFTs in just six minutes, generating over three million sales. euros in a moment. This was around the time the rest of us first started hearing about NFTs, as various artists were starting to sell their digital artwork for stratospheric amounts of money.
The future is in the metaverse.
The company’s website immediately prompts visitors to link their digital wallets with Metamask, which is one of the ways NFT owners can verify their purchases, with the idea that at some point in the near future, customers play or interact with other shopping spaces within the metaverse and virtual reality , where all items for sale are held under the rules of blockchain technology that verifies transactions and assesses which items the owners own rights to.
This is the kind of business Nike has started to get into, and it gives full credit to company founder Benoit Pagotto, Chris Le, and Steven Vasilev for leveraging “the latest in game development, NFT, blockchain authentication.” and augmented reality to create unique virtual products and experiences” within the metaverse.
Moments after the agreement between the two companies was made public, where it was not revealed how much money the sportswear multinational spent, Nike placed the RTFKT logo next to that of its own iconic brands such as Converse. Those brands have decades of history, are built on all kinds of athletes at the highest level, are distinctive designs and have a whole culture behind them that exists in the real world.
RTFKT, on the other hand, is a brand that was founded in January 2020, it is a practically newborn company, without history, that does not witness any sporting milestone and does not have the support of any real-life elite athlete, nor does it have a well-defined philosophy and culture established over the decades. However, the metaverse is the future (it is the present), which is why a company like Nike has taken this important step.
