Adidas launches an NFT collection and enters the metaverse

Since this Friday, the Adidas Originals brand is marketing NFTs that can be purchased in cryptocurrencies, which initially give “exclusive access” to digital accessories that can be used in the video game The Sandbox.

The metaverse is “the forefront of creativity” and “it is natural for Adidas Originals to come in,” said Erika Wykes-Sneyd, the brand’s vice president of marketing and communications, quoted in a statement Thursday.

Related physical products, such as a specific sweatshirt, will also be on sale for members of this restricted club who will have acquired these NFTs for 0.2 ETH (Etherum, or almost 700 euros) each.

For its arrival in the metaverse, Adidas has partnered with respected names in the crypto community, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the NFT’s most important collections, which brings together 10,000 “tokens” linked to unique images of monkeys, sold for more than $ 200,000 each.

The “metaverse”, a contraction of the metauniverse, designates a network of interconnected virtual spaces, sometimes described as the future of the Internet. The interest of the big brands in the metaverse is increasingly marked since Facebook announced at the end of October that it wanted to make this space its new business project.

Almost unknown a year ago, NFTs (“non-fungible tokens” or non-fungible tokens in French), are certificates of authenticity and ownership based on “blockchain” technology, a tamper-proof system that also authenticates transactional transactions. . ” Cryptocurrency exchanges.

They represent for some the new hen that lays the golden eggs of the contemporary art market and in a few months they have become essential auction houses, reaching prices of several million dollars – the record goes to the work in its entirety. Digital image of the American artist Beeple with 69.3 million in March at Christie’s.

Adidas is not alone in rushing towards this new digital horizon. Its American competitor Nike announced on Monday the acquisition of RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”), a digital fashion start-up that is also based on blockchain.

French video game giant Ubisoft, for its part, also markets NFTs that, for example, allow a player to purchase a unique weapon or vehicle with their own serial number that can be used in a game.