By
Mayowa Adebajo
November 29th, 2023
According to Under Armour, all the sneaker NFTs can be worn across three gaming metaverses. They include Gala Games, Decentraland, and the Sandbox. The price will be $333 per sneaker.
American sports equipment company Under Armour Inc (NYSE: UAA) will release a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to honor Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors star. Last week, the basketball legend surpassed the all-time three-point NBA record by sinking his 2,974th career shot. To celebrate this record, Under Armour will release 2,974 NFTs. Called “Genesis Curry Flow”, the collection will be the replication of the shoes that Curry was wearing on the day of the game.
Under Armour NFTs
According to Under Armour, all the sneaker NFTs can be worn across three gaming metaverses. They include Gala Games, Decentraland (MANA), and the Sandbox (SAND). The price will be $333 per sneaker. Notably, all the proceeds from the sale will go to charities to help increase youth access to sport.
Gala Games Chief Strategy Officer James Olden stated:
“We could not have picked a more historic moment for Gala Games to enter sports collectibles for the first time. We are thrilled to be the only platform for this drop that offers play-to-earn utility in-game that truly rewards players.”
Other companies behind the launch of NFTs are creative agency Berlin Cameron, NFT production company NewKino, and NFT marketplace Luna.
Berlin Cameron founder Ewen Cameron stated:
“With the stature of Stephen’s achievement, we wanted to do something that truly ‘changed the metaverse game for good,’ and so the notion of the first sneaker that can travel across the platform and have genuine functionality and performance was born.”
NFTs will be dropped on December 22, at 1 a.m. UTC.
Sports NFTs Race
Under Armour’s NFTs collection comes after its two major competitors, Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) and Adidas AG (OTCMKTS: ADDYY), joined the world of the metaverse.
On December 16, Adidas announced the NFT release to deepen its drive to become a prominent player in the fast-growing NFT ecosystem. Prior to that, the company signed a partnership with the prestigious NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Punks Comics, as well as GMoney, the NFT collector that has been advising Adidas on its plans to enter into the metaverse. Priced at 0.2 Ethereum (ETH) per NFT, the collection brought Adidas a total of 11,391 ETH.
As for Nike, on December 13, the company announced the acquisition of RTFKT Studios. The latter is a digital art studio that focuses mainly on sneaker-themed non-fungible tokens and collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain network. The acquisition of RTFKT Studios is a perfect fit for the shoemaker giant. Besides, it will help Nike to set up a strong footprint in the blockchain-based branding and the metaverse. In the upcoming years, this phenomenon will grow at a rapid pace.