Nike recently announced its very own digital trading platform, .SWOOSH, where fans can buy virtual branded merchandise. But if you thought this means your digital avatar will be wandering around a metaverse in sweet kicks, you’ll be waiting a long time.
There’s not a great deal of detail surrounding .SWOOSH yet. What we do know is that the plan for the marketplace is to drop its first virtual merch run sometime in January. And despite the Web3 marketing attached to the platform, items won’t take cryptocurrency. At the present time, you’ll only be able to buy in US dollars.
And in the meantime, the platform is in beta testing with select users who have been granted access codes. According to the .SWOOSH blog, some of these have gone to participants of .SWOOSH sessions that are currently happening in select cities across the US.
This isn’t the brand’s first foray into the metaverse or Web3. Over the past couple of years, it has been a prominent brand in Fortnite and more recently, Roblox with NIKELAND. This allowed users — mostly kids — to participate in virtual events and games. Virtual merch drops and purchases have also enabled the brand to create digital ambassadors within the Roblox Metaverse as users walk around in its gear.
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Collaboration is at the forefront of
Nike ’s messaging for .SWOOSH. It’s even created a fresh tagline for the marketplace — ‘It’s not you, it’s us’.
While .SWOOSH will begin as a marketplace for users to buy digital versions of shoes, jerseys, etc, Nike promises that, eventually, the ‘community’ will be able to co-create virtual products as well.
“That’s right. In this world, some of you will get the chance to learn how to build virtual creations that can be worn in video games and experiences.” a .SWOOSH blog post reads.
“And, for the select few creators who win our community challenges, you can earn a royalty from the virtual products you co-create with us.”
Nike also claims that the virtual merch will be usable in video games and other online experiences at some point, but provides no further details.
SWOOSH is a rebranded NFT marketplace
If this all sounds vague and like a PR spin for launching an NFT marketplace — yes.
The prolonged crypto bear market of 2022 has seen NFTs become a dirty acronym. And there are a few reasons for that: severe market downturn, scams and how easy it is to commit fraud.
That’s before you get into the complexity of intellectual property disputes, particularly between countries. As per usual, laws are unable to keep up with new technologies, which provides ample opportunity for bad actors.
Less than 12 months ago they were being promoted as the hottest new way to get rich quick in the crypto space. Even celebrities and brands were getting in on the action by launching their own collections or utilising their purchases for further profit.
For example, Seth Green bought one of the infamous Bored Apes and used his newly minted IP to create an entire TV show around the character. He also lost it for a while after being scammed, which is a whole other story.
Less than a year later and brands in particular are distancing themselves from NFTs due to the negative connotations.
But that isn’t stopping them from launching with a cheeky rebrand.
In the case of Nike, you won’t find the term ‘NFT’ on the core .SWOOSH website, in its blog posts or in marketing collateral. Instead, you’ll see terms like ‘interactive digital objects’ and ‘virtual creations’ being thrown around.
In the media .SWOOSH products have been reported as being ‘similar’ to NFTs. But here’s the thing — they’re not similar. They’re NFTs. Nike even admits to it if you take a gander at the site’s terms of service. There you’ll find the buried term used a total of nine times.
“Each “Digital Collectible” is a digital asset comprised of an NFT together with the license rights to an associated digital work of authorship or other content,” the Terms and Conditions read.
Most people won’t make money from virtual Nike merchandise
Nike has said that some creators who win community challenges will be able to earn royalties, but that’s probably the only way you will be able to turn a profit on the .SWOOSH platform.
This is important because profit has been a driving force in the current NFT space that tends to focus on items and artwork. While there are non-profit uses for NFTs in the future, such as smart contracts, that isn’t particularly prominent in most people’s minds at the moment.
The .SWOOSH T&Cs make it very clear that these virtual items cannot be resold.
“You are acquiring Digital Collectibles solely for consumptive use in connection with the Services or for your own personal collection, use, and enjoyment, and not for distribution,” the .SWOOSH T&Cs read.
“You are not acquiring Digital Collectibles as an investment and you have no expectation of economic benefit or profit as a holder of Digital Collectibles.
“You are acquiring Digital Collectibles for your own use and not with a present intention or view to sell the Digital Collectibles to anyone else.”
Speaking of economic benefit, Nike is spruiking the idea that it will help teach users how to create virtual items, which is where the potential royalties come in. But it said it will only be for a select few during community events.
That has me wondering how the general ‘creation’ ecosystem is handled on the platform. If a regular person creates a hot design, who owns that IP? Can Nike put it into production in the real world and turn a profit without paying the creator?
Source : news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiTWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNtYXJ0Y29tcGFueS5jb20uYXUvb3Bpbmlvbi9uaWtlcy12aXJ0dWFsLWNyZWF0aW9ucy1wbGF0Zm9ybS1uZnQv0gEA?oc=5 undefined - November 28, 2022