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Nike, Adidas, Puma Race for Web3 Communities to Future-Proof Cultural Relevance
Plus: NFT Marketplace Volumes Drop Low, NFT Insider-Trading Case in Court
Happy Friday! Welcome to The Web3 Marketer, where I help brands and marketers stay ahead of the web3 curve. Every week, I bring you top stories on web3 & digital collectibles across consumer & loyalty.
Today's write-up is 989 words, a 4-minute read.
This week’s TL;DR:
Nike, Adidas, and Puma future-proof cultural relevance
NFT marketplace volumes, users drop to 2021 lows
Trading NFTs on insider info gets you in jail
PLUS: Apple, Visa, Starbucks, L’Oréal, LVMH, WMG, NFL, and more!
📅 Upcoming events: NFT Talin (May 8-10), AdAge Web3 Marketing Summit, virtual (May 9-10), Shoptalk Europe, Barcelona (May 9-11), Vogue Business Technology Forum, virtual (May 11)
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The Big One
Sneaker Giants Are Racing for Web3 Communities to Future-Proof Cultural Relevance

Nike, Adidas, and Puma are doubling down on their web3 efforts by fostering native communities through the use of digital collectibles, exclusive virtual and physical merch drops, and IRL events. Read more →
The Takeaway: To stay relevant to increasingly digitalized young audiences, the three sneaker giants are testing contrasting approaches: build (ALTS by Adidas), buy (Nike & RTFKT), and partner (Puma & 10KTF).
By the Numbers
NFT Marketplace Volumes and Users Drop to 2021 Lows
On-chain NFT data suggests top marketplaces are experiences significant losses in transaction volumes and daily users, reaching low levels last seen in 2021. Possible drivers include “tax season liquidity issues”, meme coin trading frenzy, and costly network congestion. Read more →
The Takeaway: P2P trading data does not reflect the full health of the NFT ecosystem as it does not capture primary sales from creators and free minting from brands. NFTs are not dead, they’re just losing speculative appeal.
Crypto Twitter Explained
First-Ever NFT Insider-Trading Case Heads to Trial

Now-former OpenSea employee, first flagged by a Twitter user, is being prosecuted by Justice Department for using confidential information to buy NFTs and later sell them at a profit, knowing that their prices would increase after being featured on the homepage. Read more →
The Takeaway: While NFTs may be new (and legally ambiguous), market manipulation schemes involving them will likely be prosecuted. Hence, when issuing or distributing NFTs, platforms and builders should remain prudent and “check with legal”.
Food for Thought
Speculative NFT Szn Is Ded
The first NFT your normie friends buy will look like this:
· On an L2
· Cheap or free
· Bought with a credit card
· From a brand they know or a cool new one
· For a function they're familiar with (eg, tickets, gaming assets, sneakers)
· Viewed as an expense — not an investment— Liam Herbst (@liamherbst_)
1:20 AM • Apr 27, 2023
The Takeaway: In the long run, NFT is a technology (not a jpeg), and it will disappear in the background — just like the coding language of your bank’s mobile app, which you’d never care about (it just gets the job done).
Top Headlines
🛍 Consumer & Mainstream
Apple's 30% tax mandate on iOS is illegal, judge affirms—and that could be good for crypto and NFTs.
Visa is looking for developers for its crypto team, while Deloitte - audit and tax managers for blockchain and digital assets.
Starbucks second paid NFT collection failed to sell out the remaining ~10% of 5,000 collectibles.
QuickTrip convenience store celebrated its 1,000th store opening with a commemorative 1,000 free NFT drop.
Mattel launched a P2P marketplace for its digital collectibles.
Resy co-founder is launching a loyalty platform for New York restaurants, featuring NFT “punch cards”.
🤖 Metaverse
Meta’s Zuckerberg says “not accurate” he's no longer metaverse crazy but pays more attention to AI.
PUBG creator plans to launch its metaverse gaming platform this year.
Roblox isn’t a game; it’s a platform that lets anyone build experiences any member can enter.
Oncyber is pushing the boundaries of high-performance graphics on the open immersive web.
💍 Fashion & Luxury Goods
L’Oréal Professionnel launched virtual hairstyles in the metaverse to offer gamers more opportunities to fully express themselves.
Lexus launched Hoverboard NFT collection alongside an interactive “choose your own ending” adventure.
Coty created a gamified metaverse space as a training tool to upskill its 11,000-strong global workforce.
LVMH launched an internal e-learning course to educate staff on the fundamentals of web3.
🎬️ Entertainment & Media
Aoki and 3LAU’s PUNX project at the intersection of web3 and music released the first single, “Concentrate”.
Snoop Dogg partnered with Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT collective on an NFT experience that includes an exclusive song release.
Damien Hirst sold 399 NFTs and 5,109 physical artworks as a part of his recent AI-generated project netting him $21M.
Paris' famed Centre Pompidou now hosts a special room dedicated to the emerging NFT space, showcasing CryptoPunks NFT.
WMG's Chief Digital Officer discussed the future of music in web3.
🏈 Sports
NFL All Day crypto disaster was “hundreds of millions of dollars” off target as NFT market collapsed and NFL players' JV threatened to sue.
NFL Rivals, the first officially licensed web3 game from NFL, launched early access on mobile.
NHL Breakaway, the official digital collectibles experience, opened applications for “Founding Fans” beta access.
Premier League filed crypto & NFT trademark applications for its summer series.
🛠️ MarTech & CreatorTech
How brands are utilizing NFTs to improve their marketing campaigns.
For creators, there is no one right entry point into web3 - it is about getting started.
💰️ Deals
Karate Combat raised $18M to launch an app and token for its full-contact karate mixed with extended reality (XR).
TinyTap raised $8.5M at $100M valuation to “disrupt education with web3”.
Flow raised $3M in seed funding to build AI-centric NFT aggregator.
Tribe3 raised $2.1M to scale its social and gamified NFT futures exchange.
Crypto bumped to the back seat as AI investments accelerate.
🤓 Guides and Tutorials
Open vs. owned metaverse: how brands can navigate the emerging digital landscape.
Factors to consider when choosing what blockchain to mint on.
🗃 Additions to the Web3 Tools database (294 total)
Playground: helps people discover community and creators monetize their audience
Moonsight: insights and analytics from blockchain data
Reserv: ticketing ecosystem for creators, venues, and artists
Raleon: growth and retention platform
Wombi: attribution and measurement platform
Safary: channel ROI, users and customer segments
📚️ For the Weekend
A Technologist’s Approach to Explaining What Crypto Fixes (Coindesk)
AI's Interface Revolution: How You Interact With Every Product and Service Is About to Change (Substack)
AI Artist Generated $3M in Less Than Two Years Selling Artwork on the Blockchain (Fortune)
Innovating a 114-Year-Old Brand with Condé Nast (🎙️Apple; 44 min)
Adidas Team Talks ALTS by Adidas NFT initiative (🎙️Apple; from 32 min)
Meme of the Week
That’s all. See you next week!
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Author Bio
Kuba Szewczyk is an NFT Product Strategy Lead at ConsenSys, helping build NFT tools for brands and creators. He previously worked at Bain & Co. Digital Assets and earned Harvard MBA.
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