Nike wants to sell virtual sneakers in the meta-universe, and will you buy a pair of "fake shoes" for tens of thousands of yuan?

In the virtual world, how much would you like to spend on a pair of Nike shoes that can't get the real thing? This may be something you'll want to consider in the near future. On the 13th, Nike announced the acquisition of virtual sneaker brand RTFKT, which means that the sportswear giant has taken another step towards digital transformation. Although RTFKT is an emerging company founded less than two years ago, Nike's acquisition has attracted attention inside and outside the industry under the gimmicks of meta-universe, blockchain, digital assets, and "sky-high" sales.

The metacosm spawned a new fashion

In a statement released Monday, Nike said that "RTFKT has now become part of Nike." After the acquisition, RTFKT's lightning logo will become the fourth largest logo after Nike's three representative logos, Swoosh (tick), Jumpman (trapeze) and Converse.

Nike did not disclose the purchase price. But in May, RTFKT reportedly raised $8 million in seed rounds, valuing it at $33.3 million.

Founded in January 2020, RTFKT builds on the metaverse concept and leverages the latest game engines, non-homogeneous currencies (NFTs), blockchain authentication and augmented reality (AR) technologies to create NFT collectibles, while also providing designs for game companies and fashion brands.

In a blockchain-based virtual environment, users have a virtual identity and can buy land as well as other digital assets such as clothing. These crypto assets purchased are called NFTs.

As early as the beginning of last year, RTFKT went viral online with a pair of virtual sneakers. At that time, "tech maniac" Musk wore a pair of sneakers inspired by Tesla Cyberruck when he attended the dinner, attracting a large number of fans to inquire. But Musk did not wear these shoes at the scene, but RTFKT helped him put on the later P figure, and Musk also became the first person to "have" virtual sneakers. What is even more exaggerated is that this "fake shoe" was sold at a "sky-high price" of $15,000 at the time.

In February, RTFKT partnered with 18-year-old crypto artist Fiveocious to launch three NFT sneakers priced at $3,000, $5,000 and $10,000, for a total of more than 600 pairs, which sold out within 7 minutes of being on the shelves and made more than $3.1 million.

Nike did not disclose when it will launch its own virtual sneakers, as well as the price. However, people in the currency circle pointed out that for now, NFT-related products are not affordable for ordinary players. NFTs are more like a status symbol in the virtual world, in order to "appear rich and interesting".

After the meteor universe exploded this year, NFT fashion also heated up rapidly. Art, collectibles, copyrights, music, games and everything else can become NFTs, and it attracts many celebrity players. For example, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey auctioned his first tweet as an NFT and ended up selling for $2.9 million. Other celebrities have fallen in love with collecting NFT avatars, which may simply be monkey-style mosaics made of mosaic color blocks, but the price is as high as $200,000.

Of course, there are still many people who can't understand the NFT mania, why pay for these untouchable virtual assets? What's more, even if other users do not consume, they can "own" the same model by copying, what is the significance of spending a high price?

However, some netizens said that maybe this is "rich and willful", after all, ordinary people are now willing to spend money to buy skins when playing games; or perhaps, in the world of the metaverse, everything is possible.

Accelerate digital transformation

With the official change of Facebook's name to "Yuan" in October, a wave of meta-universe concept boom was set off. Metaverse is equivalent to a virtual world parallel to the real world, relying on the increasing maturity of virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain, artificial intelligence, 5G and other technologies, the industry believes that the metaverse has great potential for future development, covering social, entertainment, games, fitness, work, education and business and other fields.

Analysts generally believe that the acquisition highlights Nike's ambition to seek rapid expansion in the metaverse.

Nike CEO John Donahoe said in a statement: "This is another step in Nike's accelerated digital transformation, enabling us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sports, creativity, gaming and culture. ”

Last month, Nike just announced a partnership with video game platform Roblox to launch a virtual sports park "Nikeland" for the first time in the metaverse, which is considered a big move for Nike to enter the metaverse.

In addition, Nike has filed seven trademark applications for virtual goods with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including "Nike", "just Do It", "Jordan", etc. In the future, these trademarks will be applied to virtual goods, as well as retail and entertainment services featuring virtual goods, covering footwear, clothing, headwear, backpacks, sports equipment, artworks, etc.

It is also reported that in order to enter the virtual world, Nike has also launched the recruitment of talents for related technical positions for the formation of digital product teams.

Some analysts believe that the acquisition of RTFKT will help Nike take the lead in the industry competition, because at present, in the field of metaverse games, there are not many options for NFT sneakers and digital fashion, and RTFKT just has an advantage.

More brands coming in

Right now, the fashion and apparel brands targeting the metacosm are far more than Nike, including some luxury giants.

In August this year, Louis Vuitton (LV) released an NFT mobile game "LOUIS THE GAME", which let players understand the history of the brand by collecting corresponding fashion accessories, which attracted the attention of the industry. In September, Balenciaga partnered with the hit game Fortnite to design a more three-dimensional and elaborate co-branded costume for players to purchase.

Industry insiders said that for fashion brands, the virtual world is full of more imagination space, and the target users are more creative and pursue personality, so the production and sale of virtual fashion goods will become the direction of a new round of value growth.

At the same time, FMCG brands are not far behind. Pizza Hut tried to launch a "pixelated pizza" NFT in the Canadian market and gradually became its regular marketing campaign. McDonald's and Coca-Cola have also released NFT-related collections.

In the domestic market, food and beverage brand Nesher's Tea launched an ambassador from the meta-universe and the same "NFT blind box"; makeup brand HuaXizi launched a virtual avatar spokesperson of the same name in June; digital person AYAYI announced the "entry" of Alibaba in September and launched a blockchain concept "NFT Digital Mooncake" on Tmall.

The analysis pointed out that with the explosion of the meta-universe out of the circle, there will be more entity companies planning the future with related concepts in the future, but it remains to be seen who can get a bigger cake in the hundreds of boats.

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