Adidas made its first NFT drop by collaborating with NFT designers Bored Ape Yacht Club. The Adidas NFTs have been called Into the Metaverse, and owners will then receive access to Adidas Originals’ experiences and products. Each of these NFTs has gone on sale for the cost of 0.2 ETH, with the physical wearables becoming available in 2022.
Some of the products include a tracksuit, a hoodie, and gmoneys orange beanie.
Adidas has even purchased a Bored Ape NFT, Indigo Hertz, labeling it a sign of what’s to come with their participation in the Metaverse. The company has encouraged users to purchase its Confirmed app to explore more about what’s coming in the future.
As per their own website, Adidas focuses their entry into the metaverse by focusing on their principles, that of the edge and rebellious optimism. Those principles were designed by Adidas back in April, around the time they were studying the decentralized values of web3.
The opportunities opened by the Metaverse are big, as they allow users a myriad of possibilities to connect and create original content. This is what prompted them to collaborate with Bored Apes Yacht Club, Pixel Vault and GMoney.
What Adidas wants to do is to play a role as a brand that can support independent creators in these spaces by marking cultural shifts. While this purchase might seem like something spontaneous and even random for some, rest assured that Adidas had long planned their entry into the world of NFTs and the metaverse months ago before the purchase of Indigo Hertz.
Adidas has a track record of marking cultural shifts, be it with their business choices or their fashion ones. By setting foot on the metaverse, Adidas has become the poster boy for brands that participate in digital sports and culture. Adidas puts culture and community first, which is what led them to the World of NFT creators. They want to be first in the next big thing, and they have the power to make that happen.
In the metaverse, Adidas seeks to recreate what they do in the physical world and how they are looking to implement streetwear and sportswear aesthetics in the digital world.
As part of their promotional content, a piece of the Bored Ape NFT was redrawn to feature Adidas’ tracksuit. They even set as Adidas’ Twitter picture, including Gmoney logos.
Competitors Balenciaga and Nike are also planning to launch metaverse projects in the future, so it will be interesting to see what each of these brands comes up with in the digital world, as Nike and Adidas have always competed with each other. Be it sportswear or NFTs, these two have both dabbled in the metaverse in ways that have forever changed the upcoming digital multiverse.
Adidas has a brand value of $16.5 billion as of writing, on top of being the third largest apparel brand in the world.
If they are joining the game, smaller, copycat brands that follow the leader will do so too. Only time will tell if we’ll also see digital monkeys wearing Reebok and Zara as part of their metaverse avatars.
