If you are looking for any additional signs that the pivot from the John Donahoe as CEO era is over at Nike, Inc., look no further than the recent swirling conversations—and apparent confirmation this week—of the company’s plan to divest itself of RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”), a virtual sneaker design company and studio for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) it acquired in December 2021.
RTFKT announced its plan to wind down operations by January 2025 on X (fka Twitter), noting it would release one final collection, Blade Drop. The company did not explain what prompted the decision, but rumors came as early as March 2024. The company labeled the announcements “a new chapter for RTFKT,” the team stated it would launch an updated website showcasing “the groundbreaking work that defined” the company’s journey.
In December 2021, when Nike acquired RTFKT for an undisclosed sum (believed to be in the $1 billion range), Donahoe, then the CEO of Nike, whom long-time Nike veteran Elliott Hill replaced in October, said, “This acquisition is another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation and allows us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture.”
In May 2021, the London-based startup raised an $8 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $33.3 million, so a $1 billion valuation was a stretch.
Formed in 2020 by Benoit Pagotto, Chris Le and Steven Vasilev, RTFKT creates digital products, including sneakers, and uses blockchain technology to ensure authenticity.
Launched in January 2020 and only moving to monetize the business ten months later, RTFKT was said to have made millions selling virtual sneakers before the Andreessen Horowitz investment and the Nike acquisition.
Nike said at the time that it first began thinking about NFTs in 2019 when it secured a patent for blockchain-compatible sneakers known as “CryptoKicks.” Under the patent, once purchased by a registered seller, the buyer receives a corresponding NFT that uses blockchain technology to verify authenticity and ownership. If the shoes are subsequently sold or traded, the digital token follows.
According to Cybernews, the NFT market has struggled this year. One major crypto exchange, Kraken, recently announced that it is shutting down its NFT platform.
“Meanwhile, data from NFT market analytics provider CryptoSlam shows that NFT sales in November 2024 neared $562 million, compared to below $400 million in the previous few months,” the publication wrote while still acknowledging that “it was still almost 40 percent lower than in November 2023.”
Cybernews said the data also showed that “despite the growth in sales, the number of transactions dropped in November, indicating the rise was driven by increasing prices of popular NFT collections.”
In its X post, the company concluded, “RTFKT isn’t ending; it’s becoming what it was always meant to be—an Artifact of cultural revolution.
Images courtesy Nike/RTFKT
