The Harsh Customer Experience Lesson from Nike’s RTFKT NFTs
This isn’t merely a tale about Nike NFTs; it’s a narrative highlighting a harsh customer experience.
To understand this better, let’s rewind three years when brands like Gap and PacSun were launching non-fungible tokens (NFTs). At one point, Salesforce introduced an NFT platform for its users to promote their own NFTs. Art collectors poured hundreds of millions into this digital asset, while corporate brands sought to join the excitement in the Web 3.0 landscape.
The concept from apparel companies was that purchasers of branded NFTs could flaunt their virtual attire in gaming worlds or wherever their digital avatars existed. Additionally, some NFTs carried real monetary value, enabling buying, selling, and trading among collectors. However, skepticism loomed as concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs were quite significant, dependent on their associated blockchains.
Nevertheless, many still embraced the trend.
Fast forward three years, and NFT buyers are witnessing a market that is drastically diminished from its previous highs earlier this decade. One analyst describes this phase as an “NFT winter.”
This scenario poses a dilemma for companies backing NFTs: Do they maintain customer enthusiasm by continuing to offer NFT content despite associated maintenance costs, or do they archive and largely diminish the value of the digital goods sold?
If Nike’s experience serves as an example, businesses should be prepared to sustain their NFT initiatives for longer than three years. Nike successfully sold its RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) NFT digital sneakers to collectors, earning profits with each NFT sale on secondary markets like OpenSea.
However, in January, Nike abruptly ceased the RTFKT NFT project, stopping production and causing the value of existing NFTs to plummet. This move garnered significant attention, drawing criticism on social media.
As if that weren’t enough, the NFTs became temporarily inaccessible while Nike transitioned them from one blockchain to another.
And it only gets messier from here.
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