"Founded in 2020"... ". This dedicated team leverages the latest in game engines, NFTs, blockchain authentication and augmented reality to create one of a kind virtual products and experiences." Wow! That's a lot of expertise required under one umbrella!<p>I always have this question of how much does one need to know to be effective in any one of these fields? I'm thinking at least 10 years (which probably some members of the team already had prior to founding the company). Of course not sure what to make of NFT "experience" :).
I've always thought the sweet spot for NFTs/cryto is not these random coins run by random developers. The sweet spot would seem that it enables already trusted big brands to make their own de-facto corporate currencies. Sort of like a next generation loyalty program/gift card/airline miles program on steroids.<p>Nike would gift you some Nikecoin for every purchase of Nikes you buy. You can then gift Nikecoin to your friends or buy more Nikes with them. Unlike airline miles, the ledger is openly tracked and the companies can't devalue them every year like airlines do.<p>At the extreme end I could see an application where Nike lets people trade Nike sneaker futures. Nike would actually store the physical Nikes in some climate controlled warehouse. Sort of like oil futures where most traders wouldn't know what to do with an actual barrel of oil.<p>The benefits for Nike are that its sort of like arcade/casino virtual bux - loyal consumers disassociate Nike purchases from hard earned USD and spend more. Nike traders don't have to pay taxable gains until they convert to USD. And you lock-in money into the Nike ecosystem.
Nike is really good at acquisitions and collaborations, super excited to see what this grows into!<p>Fwiw, RTFKT is more than an "NFT startup." Their core focus is digital apparel, including AR-based augmented sneaker tech and such. NFTs are just one of several technologies they are using.
My kids are already (occasionally) preferring virtual goods over physical ones. Having the right stuff in Fortnite and Movie Star Planet is the thing.<p>It’s not hard to see big brands wanting to get a piece of that. And if VR/AR catches up, I would expect the market to expand.
What does Nike see here? They aren't a bunch of dummies, as they pretty much invented modern marketing with a few other huge brands, so clearly someone up top sees something going on here with NFTs??
Few people (especially developers here on HN) really understand how massive and disruptive the metaverse is going to be. It's going be a combination of a live, 3D social network, and an embodied, real-time immersive internet where your virtual identity becomes as valuable as your real life one. When billions of people are accessing it, whether it's through computers, mobile devices, or mixed reality hardware, how you express yourself will be at the very core of it all.<p>Nike sees this, and wants to be well prepared for it.
Im sure they got it at a good price incase the hype is real and sticks around. One thing NIke is great at is marketing. To make a younger generation believe that Nike sneakers are "culture" is fantastic marketing.