Adidas Sells NFTs Worth Over $22 Million Despite Technical Glitches Dampening Auction Energy

Adidas Originals recently forayed into the emerging space of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse. Over the weekend, the company made over $22 million (roughly Rs. 167 crore) after its NFT pieces were minted within minutes of going live on sale. Each of these NFTs were priced at ETH 0.2, which converts to $769 (roughly Rs. 58,463) as per the CoinGecko calculator. Out of the 30,000 NFTs that were made available, 29,620 have been sold while the partners kept 380 pieces for future events.

The sale did, however, encounter some technical snags. Shortly after the early access minting began and the first 20,000 NFTs went live, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club owners complained of not being able to mint the pieces.

The company was offering these 20,000 NFTs in early access to the owners of Adidas Originals tokens, GMoney tokens, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and Pixel Vault NFTs to add more limited exclusivity to its digital collectibles. The Bored Ape Yacht Club, Punks Comics, and pseudonymous crypto enthusiast GMoney were partners in the release of Adidas' “Into the Metaverse NFTs” series.

For people who may have lost some amount in the “gas fee” or transaction charge, Adidas has promised reimbursement via a Twitter post.

The owners of Adidas NFTs will also give them access to special physical merchandise, which are not expected to be available before 2022.

For now ,it remains unclear if and when Adidas will come back with more NFT offerings.

Last month, Adidas had announced its tokenised entry into the metaverse with a 29-second long video clip showing three apes, dressed in Adidas tracksuits, entering the Earth from the outer space and landing onto a metaverse land shaped like the shoe brand logo.

The company had earlier announced its entry into the metaverse and a partnership with Coinbase at the end of November, and even earlier, gotten active in the metaverse game, The Sandbox.

Adidas is not the only brand to have used the NFT space in order to connect with its existing customer base while also expanding its reach.

Recently, Macy's launched its NFT series. Earlier, Taco Bell, Burger King, and McDonald's have also launched exclusive NFT series.

Meanwhile, apparel brands Balenciaga and Nike are also planning to launch metaverse-related projects in the coming days.