Thought adidas‘ purchase of a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT and investment in The Sandbox were to be the Three Stripes’ only explorations of the Metaverse? Nope: the German company is going all the way in with a collaborative set of adidas Originals NFTs.
Co-created with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney, and PUNKS Comic, adidas Originals’ NFT line is, appropriately, tied to a series of collectibles that owners’ avatars will be able to wear in The Sandbox, a virtual Metaverse game, “and other platforms,” according to a press release.
Launching on December 17 on adidas’ Metaverse page, each NFT will cost 0.2 ETH, about $812 at current exchange rates.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW_T1R3J6bc/
In a sense, adidas’ NFTs are video game skins that’re tied to the blockchain. Better than a .JPG with arbitrary dollar value, I suppose, though adidas hasn’t specified what the NFTs themselves will actually look like.
Fans will be able to wear their digital adidas gear around adidas’ plot of land within The Sandbox, with all digital assets secured by Coinbase.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW_M9ycrob8/
But wait, there’s more: adidas will also provide its NFT owners with corresponding apparel: a hoodie, tracksuit, and the orange beanie worn by gmoney’s crypto ape avatar. You too can dress like a pixelized monkey!
On top of all that, adidas is also sponsoring the next PUNKS Comic issue, fitting Indigo Herz — the name of adidas Originals’ Bored Ape NFT — gmoney, and CryptoPunk Courtney in its usual sporty clobber.
I must stop here to acknowledge that this PUNKS thing looks terribly uncool. It follows in the tradition of tragically lame licensed comic books but with Cryptopunks in place of Hostess snack cakes or Colonel Sanders and its own complicated blockchain valuation.
PUNKS Comic x Adidas ⚽️https://t.co/x9LyVKQqty pic.twitter.com/oUlUsqzHnW
— PUNKS Comic (@punkscomic) December 16, 2021
“It’s so refreshing to see a culturally influential brand like adidas Originals work so closely hand-in-hand with the NFT community,” said gmoney.
“At every step, they’ve included the right partners from the crypto, Metaverse and NFT community and listened to their thoughts at an early stage.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW_NLlvrLz4/
On one hand, kudos to adidas for exploring an unfamiliar terrain in partnership with creatives that are better versed in the realm than itself. It’s a moneymaking opportunity, to be sure, but at least adidas is working with the folks directly involved with the community.
Keep in mind that Nike‘s leap into the Metaverse was the wholesale acquisition of RTFKT, so the two sportswear giants are clearly looking to get in deep as quickly as possible.
On the other hand, I can’t shake my trepidation over NFTs. There’s so much potential in the medium, to be sure, but cartoon apes wearing streetwear and arbitrary $800 valuations on digital garments? I dunno.
Cheers to all getting a head start on exploring the Metaverse together but I’m happy to be left behind for now.
