Nike is taking one step further into the metaverse today with the debut of .Swoosh, a new platform that will be the home to the sportswear brand’s virtual footwear, apparel, and accessories. Nike wants to build a robust web3 community in .Swoosh (pronounced “dot Swoosh”) where users will one day be able to gain access to exclusive events, collaborate with Nike designers on virtual product, and even earn royalties from the sale of those products.

“It will be a place where our community can come in and co-create that future with us,” says Ron Faris, GM of Nike Virtual Studios. “You can collect, trade, and flex Nike virtual products. You can go to IRL events with your token-gated virtual creations.”

Faris, who helped turn the SNKRS app into a powerful driver of Nike’s digital revenue, was tapped in January 2022 to lead the newly established Nike Virtual Studios. The division is a separate, entrepreneurial group inside Nike tasked with translating the brand to the world of web3, NFTs, and the metaverse. Nike Virtual Studios has its own teams dedicated to virtual product design—some of them veterans of creating physical Nike goods and some of them experts in pushing the boundaries of what a shoe might look like in digital form.

In creating .Swoosh, Nike consulted with the team from RTFKT, the popular NFT brand that Nike acquired in December 2021. RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) has transcended the digital realm, making physical versions of some of its Nike-branded sneakers.

source: https://www.complex.com/sneakers/nike-dot-swoosh-metaverse-nft