Adidas: Into the Metaverse

Having started as early as 2010, Adidas virtual footprint has grown over the years with continuous immersive experiences for its users in the metaverse. In this article, let’s do a deep dive into their metaverse journey and NFT drops over the years. 

2010: Adidas Originals Neighborhood

To position itself as a leader in innovation, Adidas created a 3D world called the Adidas Originals Neighborhood, a virtual recreation of the brand’s 2010 Celebrate Originality advertising global campaign. Consisting of 5 Adidas Original sneakers, each shoe in the AR Game Pack shoe had a unique AR code printed on the shoe tongue. Scanning 2 of these QR codes from the phone camera gave the customer exclusive access to the virtual Adidas Originals neighborhood. This space in the metaverse also included contests that gifted the users AR-generated “trophies” on completion and made them eligible to win large prizes.

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2020: Stan Smith AR Feature

Due to COVID, like most brands, Adidas had to close its brick and mortar stores. During the same time period, to celebrate the release of their new sustainable Stan Smith sneakers, Adidas innovated and employed an AR feature that was accessible through QR codes displayed on their store windows throughout Europe. The code was embedded into the website, thus making it energy efficient by reducing the need to download any additional softwares. Upon scanning, prospective customers were allured by the phrase “dare to change” and a “Shop Now” button, which simplified the buying process for them. 

2021

November: adiVerse

Adidas purchased plots in Sandbox and termed it “adiVerse”.  Sandbox is a virtual world where users can own, create, and monetize their experiences and this acquisition opened up new avenues for the brand through virtual brand activations, exclusive virtual merchandise, and immersive fan experiences.  The brand’s digital assets were secured by Coinbase. Scott Zalaznik, the chief digital officer at Adidas, said in an interview “ We see blockchain unlocking boundless potential to connect with our members. The foundation we are building with Web3 will lead to new creative opportunities for partnerships,  engagement through digital goods, and a path towards a more inclusive future.”

December: Into the Metaverse

For their first metaverse endeavor, Adidas partnered with Bored Ape Yacht Club, NFT collector Gmoney, and Punks Comic, and purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #8774, turned into a metaverse character called Indigo Hertz, and outfitted it with a custom Adidas-branded tracksuit. The collection “Into the Metaverse” included 30,000 NFTs and were priced at 0.2 ETH each. All of them were minted within a few hours of the launch and Adidas earned about $22 million from the sales (taking into account the ETH price at that time). 20,000 of these were offered in early access to holders of Adidas Originals tokens, GMoney tokens, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and Pixel Vault NFTs, thus making the made the NFT launch even more exclusive. Their acquisition unlocked both “digital and physical” benefits from Adidas. NFT owners are privy to special merchandise releases and played a part in building Adidas’s future NFT-community offerings. This metaverse project was further divided into 2 Phases. The first phase was all about community projects, including Prada’s resource art project alongside Zack Lieberman and Hot Seats featuring Bad Bunny.  Phase 2 of this ecosystem, launched in 2022, allowed NFT owners to exchange their tokens for physical products.

2022

April: Ozworld Collection

To hype up its Ozworld collection, Adidas announced the release of an online “Ozworld” collection, the world’s first personality based AI generated avatar creation platform. Aimed at helping Gen Z express themselves, this metaverse platform lets them craft their personalized digital avatars. To stay true to its message, the avatars are focused more on individual personalities than appearances. Users answer a series of questions, including their favorite Ozworld footwear silhouette , to delve deeper into their personal identity. The platform then crafts a distinct digital avatar, taking inspiration from the collection’s dynamic visual theme.Due to a collaboration with Ready Player Me, these avatars could traverse the web and enable the users to maintain a consistent virtual identity across multiple virtual environments (over 1500 metaverse apps and games).

November : Virtual Gear

First teased on the Adidas Discord channel, the newly designed “Virtual Gear”  was available exclusively to Phase 2 Capsule NFT holders and was the brand’s first NFT collection of interoperable digital wearables. The 16 unique jackets were designed to be worn by virtual avatars, and accessible via a PFP dressing tool. They included 3 limited limited edition creator-led wearables and honored the creative flair of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Gmoney, and Punks Comics. 

This launch further built on the Ozworld avatars’ ideas of self expression and  VP of the adidas /// studio, Erika Wykes-Sneyd said during the launch, “I love the opportunity this collection represents for our most engaged community of holders. Every capsule holder has a choice at launch – burn and express their virtual identity with adidas’ first Virtual Gear collection, or list and allow others to join this community. With our 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.” At the time of writing in 2023, these NFTs are available on the secondary market for a floor price of 0.0133ETH. 

2023

March: Metaverse Fashion Week

Adidas showcased its Virtual Gear collection in Metaverse Fashion Week, which took place from March 28th to 31st. The brand created an immersive experience where users were able to try on the Virtual Gear collection and token holders could wear their items in Decentraland. Additionally, Adidas released 5000 special Decentraland wearable versions of its signature Wallrunner jacket in an exclusive blood orange color.

Brands can elevate their e-commerce by creating these immersive experiences directly on their websites using dedicated 3D environments. METAV.RS can deploy such interactive and unique environments, making them accessible from the e-commerce website on any device through use of ThreeJS technology. See our solutions here: Immersive Commerce

October: The Art of Explorers

Adidas teamed up with the luxury brand, Moncler to launch a new campaign “The Art of Explorers” in the metaverse. The campaign paired AI-crafted adventurers with mixed media art, complemented by a digital immersion and an exclusive NFT collection. Moncler invited diverse artists to craft these explorers by drawing inspiration from Moncler’s “Art of Genius” show, which took place in February in London. This same show is also the backdrop to the immersive digital experience, which plays out on the Moncler website, and recalls the brightly lit metropolitan streetscape from the show. In this immersive experience, a rich mix of audio, video, and 3D animation has been used and plunges the users into a virtual city. Exclusive items and 3D art are revealed and shoppers can  purchase the collection via digital billboards. 

The limited edition NFT series showcases the Moncler x Adidas Originals NMD boot, and is available for minting on the immersive site and the Adidas Confirmed app. 3000 NFTs were made available for free, with owners of the “Drips” version of Adidas ALTS NFTs receiving one free automatically via airdrop.

November: Collaboration with Bugatti

Leading the game, Adidas announced a collaboration with Bugatti in the metaverse to create a limited edition football boot termed X Crazyfast. To maintain exclusivity,only 99 pairs of boots were released and featured two phrases on the side of the boot that have shaped the values of both companies-  “Impossible is Nothing” for Adidas and “Create the Incomparable” to represent Bugatti’s commitment. 

The boot was auctioned off on Adidas’s Web3 platform from November 8th to 11th for a minimum bid of 0.2ETH. First time users had the ease of using MoonPay instead of cryptocurrency for the bidding. Successful bidders received an exclusive digital shoebox. From Nov. 13, they could redeem this digital shoebox to obtain the physical pair and its corresponding NFT. To create more hype, the boots are planned to be unveiled on the pitch for the first time by Rafael Leao and Karim Benzema. 

If you’re considering the deployment of an immersive experience for your brand, look no further than METAV.RS. As a tech provider and white-label solution, METAV.RS excels in creating immersive showrooms. But that’s not all,  METAV.RS is not only a solution of immersive showrooms but also has the capabilities to launch NFT collections. By leveraging our Utility Manager, you can effortlessly associate utilities with your NFTs, a strategic move to recruit and engage with new audiences from Gen Z and Millenials. 

Read about how we launched Michelin’s NFT Club, which ended up in top 5 Trending on Opensea: Michelin enters Web3 with the “Michelin 3xplorer Club”