Intellectual Property theft has been going on for longer than I've been alive. In fact, I've had my own ideas and creations "lifted" many times and no, I don't always view it as a compliment. Without diving into the bigger issue of IP and Rights, I'd like to point to the irony of this story. So let's dive into it!
A few days ago Nike received approval from the US Patent Office for their "CryptoKicks" system where they will attach virtual assets (in the form of NFT) to their physical good (sneakers of course). Since the approval the interwebs have been going crazy with media portals and bloggers around the world posting the news. But is it all just hype?
To put it short, yes
Back in 2016 Chronicled raised of $3.4 Million to explore the topic. In 2018 VeChain partnered with iconic shoe artist SBTG to examine "proof of origin". Even recently, New Balance joined forces with Cardano for pretty much the same purpose. It seems Nike just took things a step further by including a CryptoKitties inspired NFT approach.
But here's the irony. We all know that the market for counterfeit sneakers is massive, so in the attempt to deal with this issue Nike decides to pursue "verifying authenticity" by literally stealing the name "CryptoKicks" from a group of underprivileged kids from Denver. Really? Yup. Back in Feb 2018 at ETH Denver the Denver Kids, together with Apprent.io came up with CryptoKicks as a result of their hackathon - see their deck here.
Not only did Nike swoosh the name, but also the whole concept
Some have stated that because Nike references the Denver Kids project in "Other Publications" in the patent application that it's cool. In my opinion, it isn't. I'm not sure what you think about it, but as someone who has seen ideas, culture, music and other aspects of creativity appropriated over the course of my grown life and had it happen to myself, this type of thing drives me nuts.
At this point there's not much we can do other than share the truth so that people know. I wonder what the likes of Collin Kaepernick or other athletes or artists endorsed by Nike would think of this? My suggestion would be to cut these kids in on a %, not give them a couple of collectibles, which is probably what will happen if they end up having to do anything to address this publicly.
That's all folks, just something to think about when you're reading through the hype, talking about how "cool" it is. Remember the backstory.
Forward Vision
On another note. With this, I can see a few things happening over the next couple of years. the NBA has teamed up with Dapper (the creators of Cryptokitties) to bring us TopShot. Combine this with throwing those CryptoKicks on your CryptoKitties and we have the making of a new "Space Jam" and even NBA Live 21 might have us importing our players rocking our CryptoKicks in Kittie form...
Just another reminder. Stock up on ETH my friends :)
Until next time,
Vandal
