Nike, Adidas Box Out Virtual Territory

The next battle for sneaker brand placement is taking place inside the metaverse.

Both Nike and Adidas have established digital properties and key partnerships as they look to establish a presence in popular virtual environments. 

Nike took steps to vertically integrate its production of NFTs and other digital goods on Monday with the acquisition of RTFKT, which produces NFTs, sometimes paired with a physical collectibles such as sneakers.

Nike filed trademarks for its signature swoosh logo and “Just Do It” slogan in digital forms and environments in October. 

Adidas made a similar move earlier this month by linking with popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club. The partnership includes PUNKS Comic, which combines NFTs with physical comic books, and crypto/NFT influencer gmoney NFT.

Trillion-Dollar Opportunity

• In November, Adidas announced a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, without providing further details.
• Just prior to that, metaverse company The Sandbox revealed that Adidas had purchased a plot of virtual land.
• Nike has its own virtual space within Roblox — called NIKELAND — where users can play games and check out products.

Estimates for the metaverse’s economic impact range from $1 trillion, according to investor Grayscale, to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney’s prognostication of a “multi-trillion part of the world economy.”