By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
Adidas Originals has not commented on any future NFT sale but called their debut NFT sale just the beginning.
The weekend saw Adidas Original’s first NFT, a collaborative project with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney and PUNKS Comic, earn $43 million from the sale of 30,000 copies of a digital asset. With this sale, the sports giant takes the second spot on OpenSea rankings only after the collections from RTFKT’s Clone X and Takashi Murakami. As per the first phase of the NFT sale, Adidas has sold over 20000 copies.
NFT Performance of Adidas Originals
The sports company made an announcement for the NFT release on December 16 wherein the company VP Erika Wykes-Sneyd called the emergent digital market a “natural place” for the brand.
Adidas made 0.2 Ethereum (ETH) on each NFT and earned a total of 11,391 ETH. The Early Access stage that started on December 17 saw the company making a profit of $15.5 million despite the technical issue faced by Mutant Ape Yacht Club leading to pausing of the minting. The NFT owners are also eligible for a real PUNKS Comic Issue 2:X Marks the Drop. Alternatively, one can purchase the same through the comic’s OpenSea profile.
Adidas Originals has not commented on any future NFT sale but called their debut NFT sale just the beginning. Also looking at its recent partnerships with crypto-based companies like Coinbase and its Sandbox land plot adiVerse, Adidas has displayed its interest in the Metaverse. The Sandbox refers to a metaverse consisting of players who can create, own, and make money off their gaming on the Ethereum blockchain.
The Adidas co-created NFT is a token that provides exclusive access to the owners to the simulated wearable within the game as well as to the respective physical products.
NFTs have reached new heights in 2021 and have been responsible to bring crypto into the mainstream. They are unique digital tokens that are used to signify ownership of art, music, videos and other real-world items. NFTs are created using blockchain technology but unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, they are not actual digital currencies. Each token is unique to the digital data it stores and is not interchangeable like the regular currency. As per research by Cointelegraph, the total amount of NFT sales will likely be around $17.7 billion by the end of 2021.
Adidas Originals is part of the German giant Adidas and refers to the line of sportswear and casual wear comprising t-shirts, shoes, sunglasses, bags and jackets. The brand Adidas originally covers sports fashion inspired by the years between 1940 and 1980 and therefore has a retro effect. Although being second only to Nike in terms of its size among sportswear manufacturers, Adidas has overtaken the biggest brand when it comes to going digital. However, Nike doesn’t lag much behind and has already filed seven trademark applications as part of its preparations to join the metaverse. Through this application, Nike also pointed towards manufacturing and selling virtual sneakers and apparel.