THE BIG IDEA Virtual Insanity
The digital basketball sneaker is an avatar for our age, in no small part because it is, literally, an avatar. There is no consumer good so perfectly Veblenian as name-brand virtual athletic apparel: Digitally rendered ankles don’t need digitally rendered support any more than virtual pets require virtual food. And yet in April, Nike, in collaboration with RTFKT, the NFT collectibles brand acquired by the sportswear giant four months prior, released a digital iteration of its famous Dunk sneaker; within hours, examples of the virtual footwear were being listed on the OpenSea marketplace for an average price of 3 Ethereum, or about $9,000.
For those who didn’t grow up gaming—a demographic that’s shrinking by the day—it’s easy to miss just how profoundly that industry has transformed, and exponentially expanded, the retail universe. Globally, gaming is bigger than streaming music and movies combined, and most of its revenue comes not from the titles themselves but from in-game purchases within those worlds, everything from virtual weapons and land to tools, toys and transportation. Entire generations have now grown up socializing, and spending lavishly, in massive multiplayer online games. Is it any wonder that branded virtual gear has made it onto digital shelves?
It’s easy to be cynical about intangible goods, but cynicism misses the point. Shared virtual worlds—collectively referred to as the metaverse—constitute a major economy whether you’ve visited or not, no different than Macau. And after luxury companies largely sniffed
