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APEWELL.COM


THE APE WELL

 * Paper Ape
 * 
 * * Dec 16, 2021
   * 
   * 4 min read




WHAT IS RTFKT?

RTFKT Studios (pronounced "Artefact") is a digital fashion & collectible company
founded in January 2020. They've created items from digital sneakers to
collectible avatars. These items exist on the blockchain as NFTs and are planned
for use in gaming and augmented reality.





RTFKT also created a feature called "forging" which allows holders to redeem a
physical version of the NFT they own. Not all NFTs are available for physical
redemption unless specified.







NIKE ACQUISITION



RTFKT was acquired by Nike on December 13, 2021. In the announcement, Nike's CEO
said this acquisition will be used to serve "athletes and creators at the
intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture." The terms of the deal
were undisclosed but the full announcement can be found here.









CLONE X



Clone X is an avatar collection from RTFKT created by Takashi Murakami. All
clones that possesses Murakami traits are subject to RTFKT's terms & conditions.








According to the agreement, each holder is provided with limited, personal,
non-exclusive licensing of their avatar - meaning it cannot be used for
commercial purposes.







STATS



 * Supply: 20,000

 * Mint price: 3 ETH (dutch auction)

 * Launch date: Dec. 12, 2021

 



ANALYSIS



Nike is rapidly expanding it's digital footprint in the metaverse which starts
with their acquisition of RTFKT Studios. To be honest, it doesn't come as much
of a surprise considering Nike is trying to keep up with Adidas and establish
some metaverse presence of their own. I was surprised that they flat out bought
RTFKT instead of partnering with them but it'll be interesting to see how they
invest into the brand.






It's likely that everything Nike does in the metaverse will flow through RTFKT,
at least for the foreseeable future. If they try to legitimize RTFKT into a
brand as recognizable as Jordan or Converse, it's not something I would want to
bet against.






Nike sponsors over 16,000 athletes worldwide and guess how many of them have
their own NFT collection? Probably near zero. That means there's a lot of
potential NFT drops, new innovations, and hype on the way. I think this marks
the beginning of a massive cultural shift centered around NFTs, sports, and
gaming.






Gaming seemed to be one of the focal points of this acquisition. Typically when
you hear the word "gaming" thrown around in NFT land people are talking about
P2E, but I doubt this is in Nike's plans. Rather, this could possibly be Nike's
attempt to move into esports wearables. I wouldn't be surprised to see Nike
start sponsoring esports teams and providing them with Nike branded wearables to
use in-game over the next few years. I think as time goes on this will become a
very common sponsorship for esports teams.









CLONE X



Let's talk Clone X for a second.






I think the terms & conditions associated with Clone X can be best described as
"silly" because some of the rules are flat out unenforceable. For example, term
#6 says that owners can't fractionalize their NFTs but this has already been
done by VincentVanDough.






Ok, so how are they going to prevent people from breaking the rules? They can't.






Then how are they going to punish people for doing this? They can't. (maybe a
blacklist is possible but that'd be a terrible look)






Like I said earlier, complete silliness.






I don't plan on purchasing a Clone X anytime soon so long as there's no new
utilities announced; however, I did make an adjacent RTFKT NFT purchase.







MY RTFKT BET



A sleeper pick (in my opinion) for gaining RTFKT exposure is through buying a
Metakey: RTFKT Edition. This NFT is a collab between The Metakey and RTFKT. It
provides membership to everything Metakey does as well as a chance at exclusive
opportunities from RTFKT.






In the past, holders of this NFT have been included in RTFKT snapshots such as
the Clone X whitelist. There's no guarantee that Nike honors this ongoing
partnership, however the fact that they want to "serve and grow [RTFKT's]
innovative and creative community" makes me optimistic that the benefits from
this collab will continue to flow. Still, this should be taken with a grain of
salt as nothing is guaranteed.







NIKE ACQUISITION GOOD?



I think this is the question on everybody's mind:






Is Nike's acquisition of RTFKT good or bad?






A lot of people seem to think it's not in true Web3 spirit because Nike bought
RTFKT instead of establishing a partnership with them. I think this is partly
because the Adidas x BAYC partnership is fresh on many peoples' minds. It's
important to realize RTFKT and BAYC are completely different types of projects
which should be taken into account when comparing these two partnerships.






What do I mean by this?






BAYC relies on it's community to create value.



RTFKT relies on it's creative team to create value.






It's important for BAYC to remain publicly-owned in order to maintain it's
legitimacy as an open NFT project. BAYC has always been more of an open brand
than a company. If BAYC was purchased by a centralized company it would
completely change it's value proposition.






RTFKT has always operated more as a centralized company because that's the
nature of the business they're in. Think about it, has RTFKT ever relied on
their community for any creations? No. That's because they create everything
in-house. Now that Nike owns them, will this change? No. The only difference is
that they'll be funded by Nike and in turn Nike will have a greater say in
partnerships and strategy. As stated in the Clone X terms, NFT owners will still
be eligible for airdrops and additional benefits just like they always have.






In summary, there's room for open NFT projects like BAYC to thrive as well as
centralized ones like RTFKT. Both projects serve the NFT community in their own
ways. Nike's acquisition of RTFKT gives them a unique opportunity to become one
of the first recognizable fashion brands in the metaverse. In my opinion, Nike
provides a safety net for the RTFKT community and greatly strengthens the
project's upside due to:



 * being the most marketable brand in sport

 * being able to leverage +16,000 existing athlete sponsorships





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