Adidas Originals launches first NFT wearables collection

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 17, 2022

An NFT-linked collection is almost a must-have for many forward-looking brands these days and Adidas Originals has just unveiled a limited collection of “blockchain-based virtual wearables, released as non-fungible tokens (NFTs)” on adidas.com/metaverse.  

It’s the label’s first NFT collection of wearables, “which is a new, interoperable product category Adidas calls ‘Virtual Gear’,” the company said.

It added that the launch “accelerates Adidas Originals’ drive towards strengthening its community-based, member-first, open metaverse strategy”.

With a teaser campaign via the Adidas Discord community, and available within the wallets of existing Phase 2 Capsule NFT holders, the 16-piece collection is described as “a creative and cultural milestone in the brand’s history – tying together past and future, virtual and physical, communities and creators, culture and identity”.

It’s designed to be worn by virtual avatars, and accessible through a PFP dressing tool, and every piece “is interoperable with other identity-based projects and worlds. This means that the Adidas collection is able to respond and adapt to the metaverse environments being built, so that the ‘Virtual Gear’ is ready for all frontiers of Web3”.

The offer itself is interesting and “looks ahead to a future not yet realised with a series of disruptive designs”.

The company clearly aims to be ambitious with these creations via designs that push the boundaries such as Neobone that’s inspired by the rubberised sole pattern of the Superstar silhouette; P.F.D — or Personal Flotation Device; and one called Wallrunner.

The collection also includes three limited edition “creator-led wearables” – each representing the creative flair of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Gmoney, and Punks Comics, respectively.

It all launched this week with owners of the Adidas Originals: Capsule NFT Collection, which was launched in May as part of one of the largest NFT Airdrops in history, able to discover which of the 16 unique pieces they’ve been allocated once they choose to reveal and replace their Capsule NFT. 

This means they’ll have to agree to ‘burn’ the Capsule NFT they currently hold, in order to generate at random one of the 16 new digital wearable NFTs.

For those who don’t currently hold an Adidas Originals: Capsule NFT, the new Virtual Gear collection is available to purchase directly across the relevant NFT marketplaces.

Erika Wykes-Sneyd, VP of the company’s Three Stripes Studio, said: “We’re laying down a marker in this new age of originality -- one that unquestionably serves the community, heroes the purveyors and collectors of emerging style and culture, benefits the value creators, and supports the diversity of expression and utility that blurring virtual worlds has allowed us all to explore.”

She added that with its “community and creator ecosystem at the core, Adidas will explore every viable utility, platform, and experience within Web3 to unlock new possibilities for our wearables, with a focus on tangible value and immutable utility for our community members”.