By Asa Hiken. Published on April 05, 2022.
Adidas Originals is launching a platform to create metaverse avatars for fans based on their personalities and preferences for the brand’s latest Ozworld shoe. Ozworld is a collection of chunky sneakers originally launched in the 1990s.
The avatars are meant to be interoperable—or freely traversable—along with the user’s owned assets across 1,500 different games and apps supported by Ready Player Me, a platform that creates avatars.
The activation emphasizes personal expression over physical traits. Beginning April 8, Adidas will query fans who visit a branded microsite with a list of personality-based questions, including selecting their favorite Ozworld silhouettes. Ready Player Me’s AI-powered tech will then use those responses to generate a unique avatar inspired by the new Ozworld collection. Fans will also be able to animate their avatars in Adidas’ platform, as well as try on and purchase digital versions of the shoes, which they can own and traverse with as assets.
Avatars, which are digital versions of people, are used in the metaverse to interact with others similar to how user profiles are used on social media.
Similar to how people interact with social media platforms via user profiles, they interact with the metaverse via avatars, which are digital versions of themselves.
They could also be the future of influencer marketing, as brands already are starting to team up with these tastemakers in virtual settings like Roblox and Zepeto, as well as create their own from pre-existing IP.
Interoperability is another notable aspect of Adidas’ platform, given that the concept is a fundamental component of an open metaverse. Ready Player Me, which typically creates avatars out of selfies (although not for Adidas’ activation), has an inventory of interoperable partners that includes social VR platform VRChat, conference app MeetinVR and gaming world Nemesis. The Adidas experience will also allow users to download their avatars and share them as stickers on Web2 social media platforms.
Avatars are Adidas’ latest foray into Web3 behind its Originals brand, following a series of NFT projects and a partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club. The company also owns a plot of virtual real estate in The Sandbox.
