Nike with new NFT plan for 2024?

After a long break, dotSwoosh, Nike's virtual creations division, is back in the sporting goods manufacturer's community. The company's plans for 2024 are announced in a new blog post. Last year, news that Nike was entering the world of non-fungible tokens (NFT's) wanted to conquer quite a stir in the industry. After all, there is a worldwide fan base willing to spend a lot of money on new athletic shoes with the famous Swoosh logo.

On the dotSwoosh platform, community members can buy digital collector's items such as shoes and shirts. The items can also soon be used in video games and for virtual experiences, allowing players to customize on a new level. But that's far from all, as Nike plans even more for 2024. So what can fans and gamers really expect?

How Nike found its way into the blockchain space

The sporting goods manufacturer's first foray into the blockchain space occurred a few years ago with the acquisition of RTFKT and the creation of the dotSwoosh platform. Nike has responded accordingly to the latest NFT hype. Still, the company has remained rather cautious in its approach to digital items and therefore has not only released its virtual products on the blockchain.

While dotSwoosh initially presented numerous digital sneaker NFTs on the Polygon network, gave a 2023 announcement community hopes for possible NFT collaborations with EA Sports and Fortnite. However, the Fortnite collaboration was ultimately realized only as a normal sales campaign for digital collectibles that did not involve blockchain technology. The latest announcement still leaves some things unclear, but at least there are some new insights.

"In-game wearables" have top priority

One of the most important of these is the announcement of new in-game wearables. Nike's blog post makes a clear distinction between "digital collectibles" and the aforementioned "in-game wearables." This distinction leaves open the possibility that the latter are not NFTs at all, but are more like Nike's collaboration with Fortnite 2023. As dotSwoosh writes:

With the launch of a new line of virtual products - Nike In-Game Wearables - we are diving even deeper into the world of video games. In-game wearables are different from our digital collectibles (like OF1) because you can buy and wear these collections directly in your favorite video games.

In addition, it should also be possible to unlock exclusive clothes and shoes in the real world based on the items you bought in games. Nike is thus aiming for an intensive link between the real and virtual worlds. Another promise, therefore, is even more limited physical products for members of the dotSwoosh community. They would get exclusive access if they had previously purchased in-game wearables or digital collectibles from Nike. The first such product was the "Air Force 1 Low TINAJ" athletic shoes, which were dropped last October for US$120.

What else can we expect from dotSwoosh?

Last but not least, dotSwoosh has announced that responsible artists will be more easily rewarded for their work. For this, users will likely be able to move their digital collectibles to their own wallets and later trade them on exchanges. Nike is not planning its own trading center for this, however, but would rather enable access to existing providers. According to dotSwoosh, customers will not need special crypto wallet need, but in the future can link their gaming account directly.

Despite this exciting plan for 2024, we must not forget that large companies such as Meta and Reddit have already withdrawn from the NFT space due to lack of success and criticism from users. But perhaps the enterprising sporting goods manufacturer can achieve what others have failed to do. One thing remains to be said: anyone who buys Nike virtual products as an active member of the Swoosh community can later buy significantly more expensive physical products as a reward. From a business perspective, this is undoubtedly an attractive concept.