Adidas’ Into the Metaverse NFTs, which were limited to 30,000 pairs, sold out almost immediately after going on sale on Friday. More than $22 million was made in a single afternoon through the sale of 29,620 NFTs (Adidas and partners hung on to 380 for “future events”), each of which cost 0.2 ETH, which currently translates to roughly $765. While writing this piece, the price of Ethereum has fallen, making it difficult to get an accurate estimate.
As part of a collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, Punk’s Comic, and GMoney, Adidas created the NFTs (a pseudonymous crypto enthusiast). The Bored Ape’s Adidas-owned tracksuit and a sweatshirt are among the rare tangible items and impending digital experiences available to NFT purchasers. According to Adidas’ FAQ, real merchandise won’t be accessible until 2022, so customers are essentially just pre-ordering costly clothing.
Adidas gave out 20,000 NFTs in the early access period
In order to make an already difficult-to-obtain NFT more accessible to a small group of people at the outset, the business issued 20,000 early access tokens to holders of Adidas Originals, GMoney, Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and Pixel Vault NFTs.
An issue with Mutant Ape Yacht Club owners not being able to mint the NFTs caused adidas to suspend early access minting just before 1:45PM ET. As a result of the problems, Adidas has committed to repay everyone who lost gas costs (which are expenses taken in order to mint NFT).
Starting at 6 PM ET, public minting will begin after early access resumes at 5 PM ET. Adidas’ website indicated that all of the NFTs had been minted within minutes of the public sale’s beginning. A single person, however, is believed to have been able to mint a large number of NFTs, which may have impacted the supply.
Adidas sold more than $22 million in NFTs
If Adidas expects to continue offering NFTs in the future, the company teases on its website that “this is just the beginning.” For what Adidas has accomplished in just a few hours with the first batch of NFTs, it seems improbable that this will be their only NFT product. Nike just purchased a business that develops virtual shoes and NFTs, and it’s likely that the company will seek to compete with Nike’s archrival.
The success of Adidas’ NFTs may inspire other corporations, but before they jump on the next blockchain, they should take a lesson from the upcoming NFTs for STAKEHARD 2. GSC Game World, the company behind the NFTs, introduced them on Wednesday, but the news was met with immediate criticism from gamers. They tried to cool things down by tweeting an explanation on Thursday, but it swiftly removed this before announcing that they were scrapping its NFT ambitions completely.