It is the meeting of two worlds: on the one hand, the spectacular designs of tennis shoes Nike that have been captivating the public for 50 years, on the other the NFT’sthe concept that has captivated the world of digital marketing and that more and more brands are trying to get closer to a new generation of potential customers.
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In April of this year Nike launched a collection of NFT’s called Cryptokicks composed of 20,000 different pieces created by the artistic community RTFKT (which Nike acquired in December 2021). The collection was released in an unusual way, because what the user bought was a digital box called MNLTH and branded with Nike popcorn, but without knowing what it contained, that is: a mystery box virtual. The boxes were put up for sale on the OpenSea marketplace for 5 ETH (approximately $15,000 at the time).
Days later, Nike announced through its Discord channel that the owners of the boxes could now open them to see what they contained. Inside they found the generic image of the Cryptokicks, along with a virtual cartridge with the ink that would give it its final appearance. In total there were eight look categories for sneakers, each with a different value. The rarest cartridges are called Alien, of which there are only 18 copies, so their value is higher: 90 ETH (approximately $176,000 dollars).
One of these pieces, created by the Japanese visual artist Takashi Murakamiwas sold for $134,000 dollars.
As reported The New York Times Nike is not the only manufacturer of sports shoes that has entered the NFT’s market, there are also Adidas and Asics. The bet for many of the collectors who acquire digital tennis tokens is that at some point they can be used to equip the characters in various games and environments such as Fortnite and Roblox, something that until now is not possible (unless the object has been created specifically for that game). They are also hopeful that at some point the digital assets could be exchanged for physical models of the shoe, although there is no indication of this at the moment.
