Highlights:
- Nike has announced plans to tokenize footwear on the blockchain
- The move is an attempt to curb the duplication of footwear around the world
- Ownership of footwear can be tracked and transferred authentically by any person
Footwear giant Nike patented shoes that are tokenized as a non-fungible token (NFT) on the Ethereum blockchain, dubbed CryptoKicks.
The patent — dated Dec. 10 — describes a digital asset for footwear and ways to use it. One implementation of the technology described in the document is an Ethereum ERC721 or ERC1155 token used to authenticate and transact a physical shoe.
The super rare nft token would be “unlocked” with the purchase of a corresponding physical shoe by linking a 10-digit shoe identification code with the owner identification code. The system apparently aims to provide a way to ensure the authenticity of the goods, as described in the patent: “Prospective and current owners […] may buy and sell digital assets through one or more blockchain ledgers operating on the decentralized computing system.
“By way of example, and not limitation, a user may buy a new pair of highly sought after sneakers from a verified vendor who may provide authenticated provenance records for the sneakers.”
Interestingly, Nike also suggests that token creation may be linked to shoe sales, which would also allow for the verification of the scarcity of the shoes in circulation.
The patent reads: “When a consumer buys a genuine pair of shoes a digital representation of a show may be generated, linked with the consumer, and assigned a cryptographic token, where the digital shoe and cryptographic token collectively represent a ‘CryptoKick.’”
When the footwear is sold, ownership of the digital token can be passed on alongside the physical product. The property of those tokens would be managed in a dedicated app, also looking to enhance brand engagement.