RTFKT Announces Metaverse-Ready Nike Dunks NFTs

Credit: RTFKT

On April 22nd, RTFKT Studios tweeted an ad detailing its new Nike Dunk Genesis NFTs. These new “CryptoKicks” are the first Nike NFT wearables since the sportswear giant bought RTFKT in 2021. 

According to RTFKT’s ad, the Nike Dunk NFTs will be compatible with unique skins called “Skin Vials.” Once users load a Skin Vial into their Nike Dunk NFTs, their virtual Dunks will take on a design created by the RTFKT team. RTFKT says NFT collectors could load thousands of Skin Vials to any pair of compatible Nike sneaker NFTs. 

To kick off this new collection, RTFKT introduced its “EVO X” Skin Vials. These eight “EVO X” vials have designs based on the 20K avatars in RTFKT’s iconic CloneX series.

However, these new RTFKT skins won’t remain static. The primary reason RTFKT used the word “EVO” was to draw attention to its Skin Vials’ “evolutionary” nature. NFT collectors will be able to “breed” and upgrade their skin vials to unlock rare sneaker designs and “powers” within the RTFKT ecosystem. 

In February, anyone who had an RTFKT NFT should have received an MNLTH vault NFT. Those who held their MNLTH vault can now open it to receive one pair of Nike Dunk Genesis CryptoKicks and an EVO X Skin Vial. Interestingly, RTFKT also gave NFT holders another mysterious MNLTH NFT.

Soon after RTFKT’s announcement, the floor price on many of its NFTs skyrocketed on OpenSea. Currently, MNLTH NFTs have a floor price of 11 ETH, or about $33,000 each. The “cheapest” CloneX NFTs now retail for 18.5 ETH (about $55,000). 

Shoewear Giants Compete for NFT Dominance

As one of the world’s top brands in athletic shoewear, it’s no surprise Nike is enjoying massive success with its first NFT wearables. However, that doesn’t mean Nike is the only player in the NFT sneaker category. Germany’s Adidas has arguably been even more aggressive in its NFT endeavors. 

In 2021, Adidas made a deal with the Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney, and PIXEL Comic to launch its Adidas Originals NFT collection. Since their launch, these NFTs have continued to increase in value. Currently, the floor price for an Adidas Originals pack sits at just under 2 ETH on OpenSea (~ $6,000).

As Rarity Sniper recently reported, Adidas is now working with the avatar-building site Ready Player Me. This site gives players the ability to design virtual playable characters that can interact with multiple metaverse games. Considering Adidas owns a considerable chunk of land in The Sandbox, its partnership with Ready Player Me isn’t too surprising

Although Adidas and Nike are the dominant athletic brands in Web3, Puma is also vying for a place in the NFT market. Anyone who follows Puma’s Twitter account may have noticed the brand change its profile pic to Cool Cat #32. Puma also purchased other NFTs from collections like Lazy Lions and the ENS domain name “puma.eth”