Adidas partners with Coinbase amid metaverse push
Adidas has announced a partnership with Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase as it plots an expansion into the Metaverse.
Adidas took to Twitter to confirm the pairing through a nonchalant statement: “we’ve partnered with Coinbase. Probably nothing,” the company wrote. Coinbase responded by tweeting a handshake emoji.
The partnership follows an announcement that Adidas will launch an ‘Adi-verse’ in partnership with The Sandbox, a toolbox which lets users people develop blockchain-based virtual worlds.
A spokesperson for Adidas confirmed to CityAM the partnership with Coinbase would focus on the company’s Metaverse push. “The Metaverse is currently one of the most exciting developments in digital, making it an interesting platform for Adidas,” the spokesperson said.
The possibility of major brands building metaverses, virtual reality worlds where people interact with digital avatars and environments, has been attracting plenty of attention since Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of Facebook to Meta.
While it is as yet unknown what to expect from the Adi-verse, companies in the crypto space have long been working on the idea of a blockchain based Metaverse which blur digital and physical concepts of ownership.
For instance, clothes bought in a real world store could come with a digital receipt in the form of an NFT which provides the buyer’s metaverse avatar with the same clothes in a virtual form.
Coinbase, which is soon to launch its own NFT marketplace, has not commented on what to expect from the partnership.