Accelerating its metaverse strategy, German sportswear brand Adidas Originals unveils the world’s first blockchain-powered virtual wearables. The wearables called “Virtual Gear” were revealed after a teaser campaign with the brand’s Discord community on 17 November.
Adidas’ studio, Three Stripes, developed the collection to help the brand increase its value and utility.
Speaking about the launch, Adidas Vice President Erika Wykes-Sneyd said that the company intends to “explore every viable utility, platform, and experience” in the Web 3.0 arena. The launch of the NFT collection accelerates the brand’s drive into the Web 3.0 space.
It also counters the movement of its rival and NFT fashion leader, Nike. The latter recently launched a new Web 3.0 platform called .Swoosh to offer Polygon-based NFT products.
What we know about the virtual wear
Users can wear the wearables after donning their virtual avatars. The wearables can also be used for NFT profile pictures. In addition, every piece of the gear is interoperable. That means they can be used in other metaverse environments too.
The Virtual Gear consists of 16 pieces that tie together the past and future of Adidas. It includes three limited edition creator-led wearables representing Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gmoney, and PunkComics.
The collection is available for wallet users of existing Phase 2 Capsule NFTs, which were launched in May and airdropped to Into The Metaverse (ITM) NFT holders. To discover which of the unique pieces they have been allocated, holders will have to agree to “burn” their Capsule NFT. The NFTs will be generated on a random basis.
While the wearables are meant to cater to the Capsule NFT collectors, those who don’t hold them can also purchase the new Virtual Gear collection on relevant NFT marketplaces.
Also, community members who own a virtual wearable NFT and a compatible partner collection NFT—like BAYC, MAYC, or Inhabitants—will be able to exchange their NFT for Adidas’ Virtual Gear using a profile picture tool. The tool for this has not yet been integrated, but it will be soon.
