News & Updates — 12/15/21
I’ll be using these occasional columns to update earlier stories or flag industry news that might not technically be a product release. It will be impossible to cover everything here, so if there’s a topic you’d like me to discuss please let me know.
Adidas announced its entry into the Metaverse…
On December 2nd, Adidas posted to its social account that it was leaping in to the Metaverse and via a collaboration with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, G-Money (Artist/Designer) and Punks Comics. Details are unknown, but the 3d versions of the characters in the linked video has fans salivating.
…and then, Nike acquires RTFKT.
In what is likely the largest acquisition of an NFT brand by a traditional company, on December 13th Nike announced that it had acquired RTFKT for an undisclosed sum. RTFKT is not a household name, but they are big in Web3, working with some of the biggest modern artists in the world (Fewocious, Takashi Murakami) and even releasing physical (‘soft’) products in conjunction with NFT releases. This news, in conjunction with last month’s news about Nike’s NFT patents, shows that Nike is taking the space seriously.
Matrix NFT problems continue:
I ended my previous post on this project with a note of optimism that the fan engagement and responsiveness of Niftys had resulted in a net positive for fans and would drive awareness for the film. Unfortunately for all involved, the difficulty of launching a project this size has continued to plague the NFTs. Niftys announced last week that they had finally finished delivering NFTs to purchasers, but due to the hiccups in the process they were delaying the Red Pill/Blue Pill gamification from December 16th to January 5th. This pushes the engagement with the film 2 weeks after its release, diminishing a lot of the expected PR and engagement from the fans.
It’s very exciting to announce new functionality and games within NFTs, but it’s better to deliver on time when working with big brands. Brands getting into the space may not want to be the test subjects for their launch partners, especially when timed around a product launch.
