Nike's .Swoosh Division to Expand into Video Game Space with In-Game Wearables

According to Decrypt, Nike's blockchain and digital wearables division, .Swoosh, announced plans to delve deeper into the video game industry with the launch of a new line of virtual products called Nike In-Game Wearables. These in-game wearables differ from the company's digital collectibles, such as OF1, as they can be purchased and worn directly in video games. Gamers will not require crypto wallets to collect these wearables; instead, they will only need to link their game accounts. However, it remains unclear whether these upcoming wearables will be NFTs or not. Nike has been involved in the blockchain space through its acquisition of RTFKT and the .Swoosh platform for several years. The company has released numerous digital sneaker NFTs on Polygon and hinted at possible collaborations with EA Sports and Fortnite. However, the Fortnite collaboration turned out to be a digital collectibles initiative that does not use blockchain technology. In its recent blog post, Nike differentiates between its digital collectibles (NFTs) and in-game wearables, suggesting that the latter may not be crypto-related. The blog post also mentions that owners of Nike digital collectibles (NFTs) will be able to transfer their items to personal crypto wallets later this year. This option will enable NFT collectors to trade their Nike NFTs on marketplaces that guarantee royalties to creators, including Nike and its affiliated artists. The company stated that building its own marketplace could distract from product creation and storytelling, implying that it will not launch its own NFT marketplace now or in the future. As of now, it is unclear how many of Nike's upcoming video game integrations will involve NFTs.