Nike has finally launched .SWOOSH (pronounced dot Swoosh), a new digital community and experience that is home for Nike virtual creations. The platform has its own domain, swoosh.nike, to ensure safe and trusted access online and mitigate potential scams with .com urls. The project is led by Ron Faris, the newly appointed head of Nike’s new Virtual Studios division, who was previously in charge of the Nike SNKRS app.
The new platform is currently in beta and registration to join .SWOOSH begins this Friday on a waitlist basis where users will be able to claim their own .Swoosh handle by registering their own domain name such as solesavy.swoosh. Instead of rushing to launch its first virtual project, Nike will spend the remainder of 2022 growing the platform by inviting in a diverse community to participate before launching its first digital collection — created with its members — in 2023.
A key component of the project release is its simplification of the web3 experience for every day users.
“We know we’re not just targeting Web3 natives, we’re targeting a more Web3-curious audience, people afraid to buy NFT’s because it’s too confusing or hard,” says Faris to Fast Company. While all the purchases on the platform technically live on the ethereum blockchain layer known as Polygon, all sales will be in U.S. dollars. This means users will not need to manage confusing crypto wallets or purchase other currencies. Users will be able to buy virtual items with a credit or debit card just like they would on nike.com, and their purchases will be stored on the blockchain.
In true web3 fashion, Nike will use the blockchain to share revenue of co-created designs as they are sold and resold.
.SWOOSH will allow Nike Members to learn about, collect and help create virtual product alongside Nike designers. This means a product could start out as a digital Air Force 1 and then allow users to claim a physical version as well. We’ve previously seen this tested with RTFKT, who launched a virtual Nike hoodie that was then used to claim a physical product afterwards at no additional cost.
Not every product on .SWOOSH will lead to a physical counterpart in real life though, some may only live as virtual releases that will be wearable for RTFKT’s CloneX ecosystem or in other video games and digital experiences that Nike has yet to announce.
Starting in Q2 of 2023, .Swoosh will also host challenges where winners can help Nike co-create a virtual product line and earn money from the sales of the line.
Nike Virtual Studios will take the tour to Atlanta, Charlotte, Louisville, Los Angeles, New York City, and Tallahassee in December. Nike will host Zoom classes at retailers that carry Nike product, and by the looks of the city list it’s likely this is hosted by the Whitaker Group of stores (A Ma Maniere/Social Stus/APB)
Nike will be posting updates about the project to a dedicated Instagram and Medium blog.
