The acquisition follows Nike's filing of trademark applications for virtual products created by RTFKT, a non-fungible token sneaker company, amid the growing interest in the Metaverse.
Photo by Melvin Buezo from Pexels
RTFKT who claim to have "disrupted fashion industries" on their website, create metaverse ready sneakers and estimated sales of over 3 million worth of digital sneakers in under 7 minutes. RTFKT have collaborated with various reputable artists and plan to invest further in the future of the Metaverse.
Nike's acquisition of RTFKT gives them a foot in the door in the metaverse and leads their digital transformation whilst giving themselves a share in the creative world by gaining a team of creators.
This is one way in which companies are avoiding copyright infringement by investing and protecting their brand by filing trademark applications for designs attributed to their work. We can expect to see other brands follow a similar strategy to protect their intellectual property. These trademarks add value to the virtual products so that other creators will not be able to use their designs without permission.
Nike isn't the only brand launching their own digital products, Gucci also revealed their first virtual shoes which can be worn in virtual reality worlds online. They are however, not NFTs but the surge in collaboration with creators on the metaverse shows you the direction that brands are going in and the next decade we will likely see a huge chunk of brands revenue come from digital products.
The revenue streams from the physical world have been affected by factors such as climate change, import/export restrictions and travel curbs and the new era of digital products presents a new income stream and future job opportunities.
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