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Adidas has a strong web3 presence, and the brand is making a point to consolidate customer online experiences with their proprietary app, Confirmed. The brand has an active web2 presence, creating an inspirational brand ethos through their ‘Impossible is Nothing’ and ‘Give Back’ campaigns on Instagram and TikTok. Sports fashion, gender-equality, and eco-activism are three consistent themes throughout their brand style and storytelling.

This overview is going to dive into what Adidas has been up to since December of 2021, and provide a bit of context by briefly describing how the brand engages with their consumers in the web 2.0 world. I compiled this because there’s no singular place to view all of this information, and in an attempt to make sense of their entrance into web3 I wrote this article. We’ll start with a timeline of activity, initiatives, POS system usage, on-chain analytics, and conclude with a SWOT analysis.

Timeline of Activity in web3

December 2021 - Into the Metaverse announcement and physical merch
January 2022 - Adidas x Prada NFT mosaic collab featuring Zach Lieberman
March 2022 - Sandbox Alpha Pass Giveaway (Sandbox x Adidas giveaway)
April 2022 - Phase 1 NFT burn to claim physical product begins
April 2022 - Ozworld personality AI generated avatar creation platform introduced
May 2022 - Phase 2 of ITM begins
May 2022 - TMELAND ‘Landing on OZ Future Concert’ Virtual music festival
June 2022 - Capsule airdrop for holders

Initiatives

AdiClub (web2): AdiClub is a customer loyalty program to unlock the ‘best of Adidas with Members Only products, access to events, premium adidas Running and Training apps and so much more’. Customers primarily interact with AdiClub through the adidas app for iOS/Android. Adiclub rewards include vouchers, discounts, free shipping, VIP tickets, HYPE drop access, and meet and greets with Adidas top talent.

Customers accrue points by spending in store, online, or participating in the daily Adidas training session accessible through the app. Customers can also earn points by reviewing recent purchases or participating in Adidas Runners events. Level 4 rewards within AdiClub grant access to more limited drops within the Confirmed app. Members of the Adidas app also get access to shop and vote on member-only sneakers, apparel, and products.

Confirmed: Confirmed is an iOS-only app that offers customers a curated selection of exclusive collaborations and first-run sneakers. It allows customers to stay up-to-date with alerts for the latest sneaker drops, as well as purchasing sneakers and apparel within the app. It is specifically geared towards collectors, Adidas fans, and places a heavy emphasis on brand collaboration and influencer culture. Confirmed is tied into Adidas web3 efforts; by signing up for Confirmed, members have a chance to win an ‘Into the Metaverse’ NFT.

Into the Metaverse (web3): Into the Metaverse is Adidas first foray into NFT web3 culture. NFT pioneers gmoney, PUNKS Comic, and BAYC are guiding Adidas, with an emphasis placed on the web3 notion of ‘with the community, for the community’. The collaborative NFT project grants holders (of the ‘Into the Metaverse NFT’) the following:

• Physical: Exclusive Adidas Originals, gmoney, BAYC, and PUNKS Comic physical merchandise, available to claim in 2022 at no additional cost. Access to the ‘iconic adicolor Firebird tracksuit’, a graphic hoodie, and gmoney’s classic orange beanie.
• Digital: Open Metaverse virtual land experiences, co-created with the community throughout 2022 and beyond.

Some things worth noting about the ITM release:

• 30,000 ITM NFTs were minted in a matter of hours for the December 2021 release.
• Adidas made over 22 million dollars in a couple of hours from this release.
• Early access to purchase the NFTs happened for owners of BAYC, MAYC, Pixel Vault, Gmoney tokens, and Adidas Original tokens
• ‘A Phase 2 NFT’ is one that has been redeemed for physical products and cannot be redeemed again
• Phase two of ITM consists of Adidas Originals: Capsule Collection, capsules for purchase on Opensea. These capsules were airdropped to holders if they burned their phase 1 NFT

Ozworld: Ozworld is Adidas’ launch into personality-based Metaverse virtual beings, in collaboration with Ready Player Me, a web3 cross-game avatar platform. In April the brand will launch the world’s first personality based AI generated avatar creation platform. The Ozworld experience enables users to create their unique digital selves. After generating their characters, users can experiment by animating their avatars, as well as digitally trying on and purchasing sneakers from the collection. Adidas NFT holders are granted early access to Ozworld through a unique URL. It is unclear at this time if Ozworld shoes will include an NFT that enables this functionality.

POS System

USD is the only accepted currency on Adidas website for US customers. Adidas has partnered with LS Retail for POS for Adidas outlet stores. Online and in-store sales, inventory, prices, campaigns, and offers are unified between adidas.com and outlet stores. Adidas uses Adiclub in conjunction with LS Retail POS systems to gather data about customers. It is unclear if Adidas plans to allow customers to purchase their products with cryptocurrency in the near future.

Accepted payment methods:
Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/Discover
Paypal Apple Pay
Affirm (Affirm has ‘Affirm Crypto’ which allows buying/selling BTC without fees)
Klarna
Afterpay (Afterpay is looking into incorporating crypto services)

Discord Info

Members: 58130
Collab.land (tokenized community bot)
GasTracker (Puts gas stats for gwei in Discord)
Hashbot (used to scan and secure servers from DM spamming and impersonators)
SBAL Anti-webhook bot
ServerStats (bot used to display server stats)
Wick bot (for captcha and verification)

Adidas’ Discord server is very active, with 21600 verified ‘Into the Metaverse’ NFT holders. These users are verified using Collab.land. The brand encourages users to post photos of their Adidas shoes, and the company regularly posts updates to the community regarding the Metaverse roadmap and announcements. There are no currently scheduled Discord events on the server.

Into the Metaverse NFT Stats & Metrics

Dune Analytics is utilized to view and create dashboards for brands that are on-chain. The following metrics were derived from freely accessible data generated via SQL queries. Each query is viewable online to see how the metrics were derived.

ETH Contract: 0x28472a58A490c5e09A238847F66A68a47cC76f0f
Blockchain: Ethereum
Token Standard: ETH1155
Creator Royalties: 10.0% (Creator/Adidas gets paid 10% of sales on secondary market)

Shout out to @hildobby for the Dune dashboard. You can find it here: https://dune.com/hildobby/adidas-metaverse

This might be the strongest release by a major brand for an NFT collection. If the numbers are correct, Adidas could have earned around 153 million dollars since December of 2021. Did they keep all that money on-chain? No idea. Results like these have me convinced that the brand will continue to push forward with their metaverse ambitions. Although we do not have access to Adidas financial history to know with any certainty, one cannot imagine any recent sneaker releases that made the brand 22 million dollars in 4 hours. Additionally, despite recent market conditions, this collection’s floor price has remained relatively high.

Secondary Market Analytics

Current floor price: Ξ0.6
Top current price: Ξ0.870
Average Price: Ξ1.999
Past 7 Day Volume: $215,581
Past 24H Volume: $52,876
90 Day Avg Price: Ξ1.1875
90 Day Volume: Ξ3,719.2057
Total Volume: $ 173,443,540
Total Volume in Ξ: Ξ55,536

Virtual/In-Person Events

• Since 2020, Adidas has regularly hosted virtual sporting events, unrelated to NFTs/Metaverse
• Twitter spaces and live AMAs have been held in the Discord (notable AMA with Zach Lieberman)
• There have been no in-person events for NFT holders
• May 2022 TMELAND ‘Landing on OZ Future Concert’ Virtual music festival
• In 2022, Adidas hopes to incorporate more digital experiences into their brand, with their ‘Open Metaverse virtual land experiences’

Tech Stack

Ethereum self-custody digital wallets
Opensea.io NFT store (customers pay with ETH)
Regular eCommerce payment portals
Heavy social media presence (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Discord)
Dynamic websites, utilizing CSS, JSON, and React JS
Unknown how the iOS app was built or what tech it incorporates

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• Has embraced the inevitability of web3, and is partnering with reputable web3-based artists to create a fun and interactive community online
• Has established itself as bullish on the metaverse and utilizing NFTs, as well as the possibility of pairing NFT ownership with sneaker ownership (phygital)
• Is utilizing web3-centric social media tools to appeal to a younger audience
• Is capitalizing on the virality and obsession of limited edition sneakers, tying that into existing customer loyalty platforms
• Phygital merch sales incorporating NFTs have been wildly popular and have generated hype online

Weaknesses

• The integration between web2 and web3 offering is inconsistent, and many web2-based social media platforms do not incorporate the Metaverse and NFT ventures (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)
• Community was clearly frustrated with Adidas slow rollout of merch, with repeated delays announced within the Discord server
• Needs a bigger tech team focused on NFTs and Metaverse content to stay competitive and roll out new offerings quicker
• Many claimed utilities from NFT ownership of ‘Into the Metaverse’ have yet to come to fruition
• Little to no incorporation on the main website for the recent NFT launch or proposed Metaverse expansion
• IP seems reluctant to fully embrace web3 despite the initial investment

Opportunities

• Has few competitors besides Nike in the collectable NFT/Sneaker asset-pair space
• First NFT launch was wildly successful, and previous partnerships puts Adidas in a great position to have continued success and create more than just NFTs with no utility
• The potential success of Ozworld could push Adidas into being a brand more focused on creating digital content

Threats

• Setup of social media and Discord server are well done, but can be replicated
• While Nike and Adidas initially appeared neck and neck, Nike definitely has more announcements in the pipeline (NIKELAND being more successful than ITM in 2022)
• Other major shoe brands can just as easily incorporate artists and commission NFT projects with a relatively small budget
• The potential failure of Ozworld (with its recent delay announced on April 7th) could lead to a reputation loss within the web3 community
• Adidas’ relative unfamiliarity with gaming means it will be competing with larger IPs as the metaverse increases in popularity

Summary

Adidas is a cultural trailblazer, embracing web3 culture and finding unique ways to incorporate it into its brand IP. With a wildly popular NFT launch, Adidas has gotten the attention of web3 enthusiasts by creating an NFT with utility both online and off, and Ozworld continues this path by incorporating Metaverse ideas into the brand. Adidas online presence is beginning to incorporate their NFT adoption, with the Confirmed app offering benefits to NFT holders. The Adidas ecosystem will likely grow in cohesiveness and shows no signs of slowing down. On-chain metrics for NFT sales are strong and consistent, and the community online is united in their love of Adidas shoes, apparel, and Metaverse potential. Impossible is nothing.

TL;DR:

• AdiClub and Confirmed are already popular web2 apps that offer customers and fans a convenient and unique way to engage with Adidas
• Into the Metaverse was one of the largest attempts to date of a brand partnering with web3 pioneers to create a space that digital natives want to spend time in, and this approach is working for now
• Ozworld has shown that consumers may have an interest in owning clothing/sneakers generated by AI after taking a personality quiz
• Adidas will continue to support its new community with surprise drops, collabs, and exclusive merch

Need help with your web3 go-to-market strategy? Eager to dive into web3 and NFTs, but not sure how to approach it? Reach out to immutablelabs.io and schedule a chat with one of our experts!

Company Portals
https://www.adidas.com/us/metaverse
https://www.adidas.com/into_the_metaverse
https://www.adidas.com/us/confirmed
https://www.adidas.com/us/adiclubrewards
https://www.adidas.com/us/giveback
https://ozworld.adidas.com/

Social Media
https://discord.com/invite/adidasoriginals/
https://www.instagram.com/adidas/
https://twitter.com/adidasoriginals
https://www.tiktok.com/@adidas

References
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/adidas-launch-first-nft-collection-150918476.html
https://adage.com/article/digital-marketing-ad-tech-news/adidas-creates-metaverse-avatars-fans/2410506
https://news.adidas.com/originals/adidas-originals-introduces-first-of-its-kind-digital-ozworld-experience/s/c29e6fdd-2c70-4362-b84a-c46c279d8faf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfhti9XucuU
https://dune.xyz/hildobby/adidas-metaverse
https://looksrare.org/collections/0x28472a58A490c5e09A238847F66A68a47cC76f0f
https://www.lsretail.com/
https://readyplayer.me/
https://jingdaily.com/adidas-tencent-ozworld-metaverse-festival/
https://jingdaily.com/nft-adidas-prada-re-nylon-sustainability/
https://opensea.io/collection/adidascapsule