Adidas jumps into the metaverse with first NFT launch

German sportswear giant Adidas is the latest brand to step into the metaverse with the launch of its first NFT (non-fungible token) drop of digital and physical products.

Adidas Originals has linked up with big names in the NFT community - Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney and the team behind Punks Comic for the release.

The NFTs - which go on sale on Friday - will give buyers access to virtual wearables for blockchain-based gaming world, The Sandbox, as well as a physical hoodie, tracksuit and gmoney’s iconic orange beanie.

The NFTs will cost 0.2 ETH (a type of cryptocurrency), or roughly 714 euros.

And Adidas has also snapped up an NFT for itself, a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, named Indigo Herz.

‘Limitless possibilities'

“As part of our ambition to celebrate ideas that are defining a new age of originality, we've landed at the forefront of creativity, which is the open Metaverse,” said vice president of Adidas Originals marketing and communications Erika Wykes-Sneyd.

“It's a natural place for Adidas Originals to enter: a wild world where possibilities are truly limitless and where anyone can express and be rewarded for their most original ideas.”

NFTs, which are ‘one-of-a-kind’ digital assets that can be bought and sold online, have exploded in popularity in recent months.

Art, pictures, videos, memes and more can be turned into an NFT by ‘tokenising’ them - or making a digital token that proves ownership of the item.

And the fashion industry has taken note of the burgeoning NFT market as advancing technology sees us ever-closer to realising the true potential of the ‘metaverse’, a digital world we would inhabit virtually, which many experts consider as the successor to the current internet era.

Just this week alone, luxury fashion house Karl Lagerfeld and fast fashion giant Boohoo launched their own NFT collections, representing the range of brands embracing the metaverse.

Also this week, sportswear giant - and Adidas rival - Nike doubled down on its commitment to the metaverse by buying RTFKT, a virtual sneaker and fashion start-up that makes wearable NFTs for the digital world.