Adidas dives into metaverse, buying lands on The Sandbox
The German sports manufacturer Adidas has dubbed it ‘the Adiverse’
German sportswear manufacturer Adidas (ADS) has entered the metaverse by purchasing a portion of land on The Sandbox map, but is still unclear what use it is going to make of that space.
“Adiverse, what should we build together in The Sandbox?” the company tweeted.
Sébastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, previously explained to Currency.com how brands could use lands on the map.
He said: “The Sandbox platform allows any creator, whether they are a LAND or not, to mint their assets made using VoxEdit, our 3D-modelling and animating tool, on the Marketplace and put them up for sale as NFTs [non-fungible tokens].
“By extension, any brand can mint his own NFTs and turn his LAND into a shop. The difference is other users can see and preview their NFTs in 3D directly from within the virtual world.”
—
Adidas was the first fashion brand to enter the part-virtual real estate, part-amusement park, however other companies have also dived into The Sandbox.
Recently, The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, announced a partnership with the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the global news organisation based in Hong Kong.
What is your sentiment on ADS.DE?
“The strategic partnership will bring one of the most international cities in the world to life in The Sandbox’s metaverse through SCMP’s 118 years of journalism,” said the company.
SCMP said it is planning to launch a collection of exclusive NFTs inspired by its library of world-renowned, award-winning photography, visual illustrations, data visualisations and infographics.
The crypto market’s reaction
The Adidas announcement prompted a surge in demand for lands on the market-leading The Sandbox, which recorded a trading volume of over $9m (£6.7m, €7.2m) in the past 24 hours.
On the other hand, The Sandbox coin (SAND) witnessed an almost 30% increase in its price on the crypto market, trading at the time of writing (15:00 GMT) at $5.41 with a trading volume of $5.5bn and a market cap of $4.8bn.
The rival metaverse NFT platform Decentraland also benefitted from the news, having sold a virtual fashion real estate space in the past 24 hours for a whopping $2.5m.
Adidas did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
