Yesterday Adidas released its first blockchain-based wearable collection on the company’s metaverse website. The adidas Originals “Virtual Gear” collection features 16 pieces of apparel designed to be worn by virtual avatars and interoperable with other identity-based worlds in web3. The collection also includes three wearables from Adidas web3 partners the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gmoney, and Punk Comics.
This release follows on the heels of a previous Adidas metaverse initiative in collaboration with the Ready Player Me platform, enabling the company to launch AI-generated personality-based avatars. The platform allowed for the digital characters to travel across 1500 apps and games on the metaverse and was a key part of adidas’ strategy to allow interoperability between different standalone platforms.
Circling back to the latest launch, Nic Galway, Senior VP of Creative Direction for adidas Originals, said it “represents an idea of wearable clothing that can transcend time and space, a community that is vividly diverse, and a level of utility that can be explored and even discovered as worlds and avatars take new forms.”
The first phase of Adidas’ “Into the Metaverse” NFTs in December 2021 featured 30,000 NFTs and earned $23 million in a single day, highlighting the popularity of the brand in web3.
Coincidentally last week, competitor Nike announced plans for its web3 platform “.Swoosh”. The first digital collectibles will be available in 2023. Nike’s recent strategy may be attributed to tools and technologies made available through the company’s acquisition of RTFKT Studios, a start-up that uses blockchain authentication and augmented reality to create digital sneakers. Nike is still ahead in terms of its presence in the metaverse, with Nikeland on Roblox being visited by 21 million online users. Nike’s digital initiatives are core to the business and will help to drive sales. According to Nike’s annual report, the owned digital revenue (e-commerce) now accounts for20% of its business.
