Nike gets fit for the metaverse

The Future. Some of Nike’s patent filings over the past few years unbox a long-in-the-works play for the metaverse, including digital sneakers, NFT “cryptokicks”, and avatars that can compete for virtual gear. With Microsoft working on its own interoperable avatars for the metaverse, Nike could soon outfit an entire digital ecosystem.

“Cryptokicks”
Here are a few of the things Nike is stitching up for the metaverse:

• User-avatars that can wear digital Nike clothes and also complete tasks to earn gear using Nike’s athletic-tracking devices.
• “Cryptokicks” — digital sneakers that correspond to a real, physical pair. The digital sneakers could then be sold separately as NFTs.
• Wearable virtual sneakers using AR tech.
• “Shoe offspring” — Frankenstein sneaks made from different digital kicks.
• Something called “intelligent electronic shoes.”

Additionally, Nike could offer limited edition sneakers at events or for promotions, locking in digital drops in a real geographic location. Per the patent: “Spectators at a professional sporting home opener may give the right to acquire one of a limited quantity of unique digital assets, each being separately secured via its own cryptographic token.”

Digital drop
By diving into the digital/crypto/metaverse space, Nike could also solve a few problems that have plagued sneakerheads, like losing to bots on the SNKRS app or trying to authenticate if a pair of resold Nikes are real.

• With the cryptokicks application, counterfeiting could be a thing of the past.
• The SNKRS app could roll out a virtual line populated by verified avatars in order to participate in drops.

Nike is only at the beginning of its digital journey, which reported a 147% growth last quarter. Very soon, Nike’s past year of innovations (like releasing a Travis Scott shoe in Fortnite and virtual sneaker try-ons) will be seen as rudimentary.