What does Nike see here? They aren't a bunch of dummies, as they pretty much invented modern marketing with a few other huge brands, so clearly someone up top sees something going on here with NFTs??
NFTs are conceptually nonsense in most cases but if you just want to cash out by selling extra little add ons and you already have a willing market it kind of makes sense.
Sneakers are physical NFTs – StockX, the largest market for trading sneakers, did $1.8b in GMV last year. OpenSea, the largest market for trading NFTs, did $3.4b.
Sneakers and NFTs are both worth way more than their input materials to the point that outsiders don’t get it
It starts as a hobby, and if people are good enough at it, it can turn into a job
etc
The fact that both are worth more than their inputs and have big markets doesnt necesarily mean that they pair together. Basically all manufactured goods meet this description.
I agree there probably is a way to join them but you have to define what that is before arguing there is a value proposition.
Shame about the energy use.
But I would say that a big, established company is completely orthogonal to making sound decisions about things. I've been baffled at how hype-driven c-suite types can be, and NFTs/etc. are a pretty great opiate for the c-suite these days.
My guess is: they have a lot of money lying around, like most companies these days. Gotta spend it on something (other than employees, of course).
Assuming they don't: Buzzwords basically pay for themselves by driving up share prices and on top they generate free advertisement (as in this case).
Couldn't an argument be made that these aspects are more than enough reason for Nike to pull something like this, even if they don't believe at any moment that there is any worth in something like NFTs. Things and technologies can generate money (or be useful for somebody) even if they are bull**.
I just hope they bake in carbon offsets, it's my only real gripe with blockchains and NFTs; the ponzis and snakeoil will sort themselves out.