Perhaps as a way to avoid this, Nike is planning to attach services and utilities to its virtual products. The NFT bubble may have burst, at least for now, but it’s not yet clear whether the broader market for virtual goods will be as volatile. “We’re calling these ‘Nike virtual creations’ because we think that it has broader implications than NFTs,” Faris says. According to Bloomberg, the metaverse market may reach $783.3 billion in 2024, up from $478.7 billion in 2020-and virtual products no doubt play a role in this projection.Īlthough Nike acquired RTFKT last year and made $3.1 million selling 600 pairs of “Cryptokicks” NFT sneakers in April 2022, it is sidestepping currently tarnished NFTs for the Swoosh launch. And in June 2022, Balenciaga, Thom Browne, and Prada partnered with Meta to create virtual products for sale on the platform’s new Avatars Store. Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger also have spaces on Roblox where digital merchandise is sold.

Vault, Gucci’s online concept store which hosts various crytpo and NFT projects, was introduced to The Sandbox in October 2022, solidifying the brand’s relationship with the metaverse. The bet has seemingly paid off: A digital-only Gucci bag on Roblox sold for more than the price of its physical counterpart (in in-game currency, of course). Gucci has been somewhat of a pioneer: In 2021, the brand launched digital-only sneakers Gucci Virtual 25, which can be worn on VRChat and Roblox, and created Gucci Town on Roblox, an immersive space in which users can buy other virtual Gucci apparel. Nike isn’t the first high-end apparel brand to take on virtual products. This is the very reason MSquared, Improbable’s division that builds metaverses for third parties, requires clients to ensure all of its virtual spaces be interoperable. Nikeland could be subsumed into Swoosh, but interoperability will surely have to be front and center for that to succeed. “We haven’t contemplated exactly what that looks like,” he says.īy launching Swoosh, Nike may be creating its own virtual world that won’t need to rely on other platforms. Again, Faris does not seem to know how Swoosh will interact with Nikeland. Launched in November 2021, the branded virtual world has seen more than 26 million visitors, according to Roblox. Nike already has a metaverse space on Roblox-Nikeland-where users can buy and wear virtual goods using not cash or crypto but in-game currency. Meta’s recent announcement that its avatars will have legs seems like an ideal opportunity for virtual sneakers. Beyond this, there are no specific details on the interoperability of Swoosh items with other platforms or metaverses, but Faris says the plan is to “work where our wearables will start to become more operable across more experiences or games that you find yourself playing.” In other words, wait and see. Of course, the NFT studio RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) was bought by Nike in December 2021, so the porting of “codesigned” virtual clothing to that platform is hardly surprising.

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