What Do Bored Ape Yacht Club, adidas, & Nike All Have in Common?
This article was updated on December 17, 2021
If you're getting metaverse and NFT fatigue, you better buckle up for the long haul, as Bored Ape Yacht Club's forthcoming adidas collaboration shows we've barely scratched the surface of what's to come.
All this talk of Meta(verses), NFTs, and Cryptocurrency can be a lot to try and get your head around for the not-so-tech-savvy (i.e. me).
Somehow, it feels like our peers' tech-pertise is aging us, as they invest more and more time and money into NFTs and preparing for the shift into web3.
These changes, though seemingly sudden, have been a slow but constant evolution that is shifting the boundary between the physical and digital aka "phygital" world.
There's no ignoring it – the Staples Center is set to become the Crypto.com Arena, Fortnite are the new staging ground for luxury fashion, Meta is wooing Balenciaga, Gucci has an Xbox, and Roblox is hosting fashion awards.
While plenty of us are still in denial or are attempting to disillusion ourselves with the transition as it unfolds, adidas is taking steps to dive in, announcing a collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club.
If you've been on Twitter at all, you'll be familiar with the BAYC characters.
These NFTs of stylized monkey faces have taken the world by storm, heralded as the Supreme of the metaverse – a scale of influence clearly being recognized by the industry's biggest players.
The Three Stripes' plan seems to be multifaceted in its approach to the web3 shift.
Recently it announced that it's partnering with the cryptocurrency exchange platform, Coinbase to snap up land in the Sandbox, eventually announcing a forthcoming collection of adidas NFTs.
Similarly, Nike has purchased land in Roblox to create a digital "NikeLand" and filed for digital patents that cover its IRL logos and sneakers.
Though many will continue to dismiss the scale of change coming, brands of all sizes are clearly buckling down to get in ahead of the curve.
Heck, even Apple knows that the iPhone will be obsolete eventually.
