Into the Metaverse
Digital-physical, from the start.
- Client
- adidas
- Year
- December 2021
- Role
- Senior Director, Digital Innovation
- Discipline
- Web3 / Virtual goods
Photo: adidas
Show up as a collaborator, not a landlord. A digital-physical product tied together at manufacture.
Most brand entries into digital collectibles in 2021 were simple image drops with no real utility. adidas's approach was different: a patented system that cryptographically bound digital tokens to physical goods at manufacture, so that the hoodie, tracksuit, and beanie maintained permanent on-chain linkage.
Three creative partners — gmoney, PUNKS Comic and Bored Ape Yacht Club — were treated as peers, not licensees.
A US patent covers the digital-physical binding system — the mechanism that allows a physical garment to carry its digital twin from manufacture through the product's full lifecycle.
- 30,000tokens sold out in under an hour
- $24M+primary market revenue
- 1:1pairing of digital tokens with physical products
- 1US patent in digital product
The program reset category expectations for brand participation in digital-physical products — moving beyond simple drops to integrated experiences that maintained their value through the product lifecycle.
The underlying architecture — a product that exists simultaneously in physical and digital form, with provenance tracked on-chain — is the direction the industry moved in, regardless of what the medium is called.