NFT
LeBron James, arguably the most famous basketball star of the moment, was photographed wearing special Nike sneakers that can only be purchased by a Ethereum NFT made by Nike subsidiary RTFKT. And the founders of RTFKT apparently also presented the living legend with his own Clone X NFT avatar too.
James wore the RTFKT x Nike Air Force 1 Genesis sneakers on Tuesday ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 1 victory against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA’s Western Conference Semifinals. The Lakers tweeted a photo of James wearing the black and red kicks, next to a photo of teammate Anthony Davis.
The photo quickly went viral among RTFKT NFT holders and then the company itself, which was acquired by Nike in December 2021.tweeted it out with a zoomed in on the shoes.
Sneakers for a KING 👑 pic.twitter.com/lYX4UBrMxX
— RTFKT (@RTFKT) May 3, 2023
Soon after, RTFKT co-founder Steven “Zaptio” Vasilev shared a photo from himself and Nikhil Gopalani, COO of RTFKT, presenting James with an honorary Clone X avatar. “We have [to] aboard the legend [LeBron James] to RTFKT with his 1/1 Clone X,” Vasilev wrote.
Decrypt reached out to representatives from RTFKT and Nike for more information on the interactions with James, including whether it is an extension of his existing long-term sponsorship deal with Nike and whether he actually gained custody of NFTs. Neither company responded immediately.
We boarded the legend @KingJames to @RTFKT with his 1/1 👑 Clone X
W/ @Nikgopalani pic.twitter.com/7a0prcUwWI— Zaptio RTFKT (@Zaptio) May 3, 2023
The RTFKT x Nike Air Force 1 Genesis is a set totaling just 1,776 pairs of sneakers in that style that can only be obtained by purchasing an NFT and then redeeming it for the physical product. Secondary market prices for the Genesis NFTs start at 0.4 ETH or $740 on OpenSea. The physical sneakers can only be redeemed until May 8, according to an official FAQ.
There are several other RTFKT x Nike Air Force 1 styles of NFT based kicks also available in different quantities and at different prices on the secondary market. The most limited style, called “Alien” and with something of a neon twist on the Lakers’ own yellow and purple look, has a total supply of only 60 pairs which start at 5 ETH ($9,245).
Nike and RTFKT Unveil CryptoKicks: Their First Ethereum NFT Metaverse Sneakers
Clone X is an Ethereum NFT profile picture (PFP) project launched in 2021 as a collaboration between RTFKT and Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. It has become one of the most prominent and successful PFP projects in the space, generating nearly $835 million in trading volume to date as per data from CryptoSlam.
Last September, RTFKT changed the metadata– or the data that defines the unique properties of a particular NFT asset – for a single Clone X NFT with an “LBJ beard” and a yellow and purple crown, both of which no other NFT in the collection has.
The Clone X avatar James is holding in the image shared Tuesday has the same visual cues as that NFT, albeit with an all-blue color scheme. It is unclear if it is a separate NFT from the one that was changed last September. It remains in the custody of the “RTFKT_CORE_VAULT” wallet, per OpenSea dataand was last transferred in January.
In addition to the various NFT creations of its RTFKT subsidiary, Nike has also launched its own digital sneakers and apparel platform called .SWOOSH on Ethereum scale network Polygon. Nike said last month it already has more than 330,000 users on .SWOOSH and will start its mint for “Our Force 1” NFT based sneakers from May 8.
