In March, when Jordan Brand released the Air Jordan 4 “Brick by Brick,” a collaboration with the BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester, they sold out almost instantly, quickly doubled in value on the resale market and were championed by collectors as an early contender for sneaker of the year.
But for some sneaker fans, the real fun began two months later, when the “Brick by Brick” became available in Fortnite — as a fully digital replica that could be purchased for 1,000 “V-Bucks,” the game’s virtual currency, or about $8.99.
Fortnite, the online multiplayer shooter by Epic Games, introduced Kicks, a vertical within its popular in-game marketplace dedicated to footwear, in November. Alongside a handful of quirky proprietary designs, the virtual shop sells shoes by Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas and Crocs, which can be worn by player avatars and shown off during matches.
For gamers — especially kids — these digital sneakers represent a form of creative self-expression.
“The younger generation sees what happens on the internet as no less important than the offline world,” Funs Jacobs, a technology and culture strategist, said. “To older generations, it sounds insane, but it’s a bit of an identity thing.”
They’re also a big business. Fortnite, a free-to-play game, has more than 500 million registered users and an average of over two million active players every day. Its $5 billion in annual revenue comes almost entirely from the sale of virtual goods. Though Epic would not provide exact sales figures, a representative from the company said players had selected and applied Kicks to their avatars nearly seven billion times since November.
Sneakers were first introduced to “Fortnite” as functions of other brand activations, such as the game’s previous collaborations with the musician Travis Scott, an ambassador for Jordan Brand who has several popular models of Jordan sneakers. Kevin Durkin, the senior director of partnerships strategy for Epic Games, said that Kicks was an extension of that approach. “Over the past few years, we’ve worked with many of these same brands and simultaneously outfitted musicians, athletes and celebrities with iconic footwear in-game,” he explained. “It was a natural next step to empower players to choose this on their own.”
Epic and its brand partners divide the revenue from in-game sneaker sales. But the sneaker companies have a more salient motivation. Consumers have been losing interest in sneakers, as the frenzy for retro shoes whipped up during the pandemic has gradually abated. Putting sneakers in virtual worlds is a way to drum up interest among younger consumers, who may be converted into ardent sneaker fans because they saw the shoes in their favorite game.
“Gaming has emerged as a pivotal touchpoint in reaching and influencing Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” said Thomas Wehner, the global head of Adidas Gaming, pointing out that Adidas was eager to “authentically engage” with the “vast community, creativity and cultural relevance” offered by a game like Fortnite.
Younger audiences can be difficult for brands to reach through traditional media. Advertising in television, newspapers and magazines rarely reaches them, leading companies to look for opportunities across social media and video games for better reach.
“By partnering with Epic and Fortnite to launch Kicks, we’re meeting the next generation of athletes where they are — in physical and virtual spaces,” said Nikhil Pandit, global director of gaming partnerships at Nike.
The sneaker market is heavily nostalgia driven: Fans who grew up watching Michael Jordan in the ’90s have spent billions collecting his classic shoes. According to Nike, selling shoes in Fortnite is partly about the long-term payoff — it wants to build future nostalgia among a new generation who may one day want to buy the real-life version of the shoes they once owned in the game. But brands are also helping to facilitate the sale of real sneakers to those invested in the digital ones. Recently, Nike began offering customers who purchased digital sneakers early access to highly coveted shoes via their proprietary app — making it easy for a virtual customer to be converted into another real-life sneakerhead.
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