002: Summer of Shoes

Around the block…

Digitally Connected Shoes

• Adidas: Dropped a ‘phygital’ sneaker with BAPE in celebration of the latter’s 30th anniversary. Going for exclusivity, there are 100 NFTs up for auction until 8/23 that will be redeemable for NFC-chipped physical shoes in late September (Adidas COLLECT).

• Dior: Launched their B33 men’s ‘phygital’ sneaker line last month. Taking the luxury angle - shoes are equipped with NFC chips & authenticated through Ethereum NFTs through the Aura Blockchain Consortium. Owners will receive ‘access to exclusive services’ including early access to the upcoming Spring fashion collection & a Snapchat filter (Dior).

• Puma: Collaborated with entertainment company Roc Nation & NFC company Legitimate to create three ‘phygital’ shoes that grant owners access to exclusive music content in celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop (Puma / CoinDesk).

Physical Shoes w/ NFT IP

• Sketchers: Partnered with Snoop Dogg to release limited edition physical shoes & slides featuring his Bored Ape Yacht Club character, Dr. Bombay (Sketchers).

• Reebok: Partnered with VeeFriends (GaryVee’s NFT project) to release a physical shoe with design inspiration from the ‘Aspiring Alpaca’ NFT character. Shoes were available for pre-sale to VeeFriends NFT owners, before becoming available for public sale on 8/24 (Reebok / VeeFriends).

Virtual Experience

• Lululemon: Launched an interactive shopping experience created by Emperia supporting the drop of their Chargefoot 2 shoe earlier this month (Lululemon).

What is…?

• Phygital: Items that have physical & digital components. Exact expression varies - IRL items can have digital twins or 1:1 item replicas, be tethered to an enhanced experience, or be authenticated via NFT.

• NFC Chip: Near-field communication chip. The same technology that is used for ApplePay can be affixed to physical items; when scanned by a mobile device, the chip can link or deep-link into a website or app experience.

• Emperia: A virtual store / metaverse platform that enables online shopping and immersive experiences. In addition to Lululemon, they have created experiences for Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Sunglass Hut, among others (Emperia).

• Aura Blockchain Consortium: Created by brands including LVMH, Prada Group, & Mercedes-Benz, etc. They aim to create a ‘single global blockchain solution open to all luxury brands’. Their series of tech solutions include a smart contract generator that allows permission brands to mint to their private blockchain that rolls into the Ethereum chain (Aura Blockchain Consortium / PYMNTS).

Chain Reactions!

• Tech x Shoes: Shoe & luxury brands continue to be major drivers of web3, metaverse, & NFT activations / exploration. Early hype & success from Nike & RTFKT digital shoe collections seemed to jumpstart the willingness for others to enter the space, along with likely audience overlap between sneaker-heads & gamers / early tech-adopters. An increasing number of phygital shoes are becoming available - it’ll be interesting to see if there is enough consumer interest to move tech-infused shoes beyond exclusive drops & become mainstream.