Nike Divests from Virtual Sneaker Brand Rtfkt a Year After Closure

Nike is definitively leaving its blockchain venture behind. The U.S. sports equipment giant has announced the sale of its virtual sneaker proposition Rtfkt about a year after closing the deal. The terms of the transaction have not transcended, nor has the name of the buyer.

The company has progressively reduced its stake in blockchain-based digital collectibles, a sector it has shown interest in in the past. Nike joined the sum of virtual assets (NFT) with the purchase of the company in 2021. Globally, the rush for such innovation has also been on the decline since 2022.

The startup, founded in January 2020 by Benoit Pagotto, Chris le and Steven Vasilev, traded NFTs in various metaverses. In the same year of its founding, it turned over $600,000 and between January and May 2021 alone it had earned $4.5 million. This growth was, at the same time, driven by the rise of cryptocurrencies.

Nike entered the world of the metaverse in 2021, a sector for which it has been progressively losing interest in recent years

In April 2022, Nike launched its first collection of non-fungible tokens (NFT), a model of virtual sneakers with different designs, and in November of the same year it powered its own metaverse marketplace platform aimed at fostering an “inclusive digital community” for athletes and consumers of the brand. The platform allowed the products to be collected.

However, Rtfkt shut down in 2024, shortly after a revamped CEO, Elliott Hill, put his strategy of focusing the company on its core sports business on the table.

Nike closed the first half of the current fiscal year with 1% growth compared to the same period in 2024, although profit persisted on the downside, down 31%. The company posted sales of $24.147 billion and net income of $1.519 billion.