Nike Will Let People Design and Sell Sneakers for the Metaverse

At the time of launch, there won't be any virtual products, but the brand wants the virtual products to be on and off the platform. Ron Faris, VP/ GM of Nike Virtual Studios, says that he can imagine the avatars on RTFKT being able to wear our Wearables, as well as the avatars in games you already play.

Nike bought the NFT studio in December of 2021, so it's no surprise that the virtual clothing will be available on that platform. Faris says the plan is to work where our wearables will start to become more operable across more experiences or games that you find yourself playing. Wait and see is one way to describe it. Meta's recent announcement that it will have legs makes it an ideal opportunity for virtual sneakers.

Users can buy and wear virtual goods using in-game currency on Nikeland on Roblox. More than 26 million people have visited the branded virtual world since it was launched. Faris isn't sure how Nikeland will interact with Swoosh. He doesn't know what that looks like.

Nike might be creating its own virtual world that won't need to use other platforms. Interoperability will have to be front and center for Nikeland to succeed. MSquared, Improbable's division that builds metaverses for third parties, requires clients to make sure all of its virtual spaces are compatible.

Virtual products are not the first high end apparel brand to take on. Gucci created Gucci Town on Roblox, a virtual space in which users can buy other virtual Gucci apparel, as well as Gucci Virtual 25, which is a digital-only sneaker that can be worn on virtual reality platforms. A digital-only Gucci bag on Roblox sold for more than the price of its physical counterpart. The brand's relationship with the metaverse was solidified by the introduction of Vault, Gucci's online concept store which hosts various crytpo and NFTprojects.

There are places on Roblox where digital merchandise can be purchased. Meta and Prada collaborated to create virtual products for sale on the platform. The metaverse market is projected to grow from $478.7 billion in 2020 to $783.3 billion in four years.

Virtual product marketplaces may be the next logical step in Nike's digital success. Digital channels and applications accounted for more than a quarter of the brand's revenues by March 2022.