Adidas to ‘Scope Out’ Token-Gated Sneaker Drops, Says Web3 Lead

Adidas’ Web3 ambitions may soon include the inclusion of a cryptocurrency.

But it won’t be as simple as just adding a payments plugin.

“We’ve talked about it, but I don’t know if that’s really solving a problem,” Adidas’ Web3 lead Erika Wykes-Sneyd told Decrypt today at NFT Paris.

She added that it’s not “an expensive proposition,” especially when there aren’t any clear barriers to buying the sneakers and clothes we want with fiat currencies. 

Instead, the sports and fashion brand would more likely draw on its early crypto experiences, promoting communities and doing unique digital drops.

Adidas first purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT back in December 2021, and then issued its own 30,000 NFT drop the same month. The sportswear giant raked in $23.4 million in a single afternoon from the debut “Into the Metaverse” drop.

“There are interesting payments in Apecoin and some of the other coins that are coming out that could be even more surprising if Adidas was going to maybe gate exclusive drops for specific communities and specific currencies,” she said. “I think that’s something that might be more compelling to us.”

Users could potentially be white-listed into their favorite sneaker drops, for example, something that aligns both Web3 technologies with Adidas’ larger corporate strategy.

With token-gated tactics, crypto communities “can beat the bots, and not have to play the game of waiting for the sneaker drop, and getting the L,” she said. “That’s stuff we’re starting to scope out now.”

Adidas joins list of brands betting on Web3

The sportswear company isn’t the only non-crypto firm digging into the Web3 space either.

Yesterday, the co-founder of Salesforce Web3 studio Marc Mathieu told Decrypt that connecting crypto wallets to brands will become the “new cookie,” referring to the data blocks for identifying user activity on the internet.

“It’s a new kind of relationship with a new generation of customers, with–at its heart–a new set of data,” said Mathieu.