Adidas Joins Forces With Bored Ape Yacht Club and Dives into the Metaverse

Adidas is collaborating with Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs and others in the space to enter the metaverse. And in a show of good faith that has attracted its fair share of derision, the global apparel brand has bought its own Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT).

Adidas is also teaming up with NFT collector Gmoney and Punks Comic, a CryptoPunks-inspired unofficial Ethereum NFT derivative project.

Adidas Pays $156k for Single BAYC NFT

According to data from OpenSea, Adidas purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT #8774 in September for 46 ETH, or just over US$156,000 at the time, and will rebadge it as a metaverse character called Indigo Herz. Rabid BAYC enthusiasts have paid as much as US$1.29 million for a single NFT.

Via Twitter, Adidas also recently announced a collaboration with upcoming Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox.

Twittersphere ‘Welcomes’ Adidas to the Metaverse

Speaking of Twitter, reactions to Adidas’s leap into the metaverse have been mixed, to say the least. “We can’t wait to see Adidas in the metaverse,” tweeted Meta, the social media behemoth formerly known as Facebook, which has its own designs on the metaverse.

“This is the Sandbox metaverse, not Mark’s [Zuckerberg’s] metaverse. Or any clarification @Meta on where your metaverse will be?? at the @Roblox maybe? lol,” tweeted @horsesnft.

“Hopefully Adidas decides to stay in the cool parts of the metaverse, not Zuckerville,” tweeted @Lucky5Micah. Or this, from @marmish: “Cringe. So desperate to be cool.”

Summing up the negative responses was this tweet from @NFT_invest: “Good luck bitches! This is our space!”

Asics Beats Both Adidas and Nike to the NFT Punch

Like its primary competitor Nike, which has yet to bring its CryptoKicks patent to market, Adidas has been relatively slow off the blocks in the NFT race. Japanese multinational Asics stole a march on both brands back in July with the launch of its 189-piece digital footwear collection.