RTFKT continues its NFT victory with space drip

In the NFT world, sneakers have become synonymous with RTFKT. Over the past year, they have gone from selling purely digital shoes to being picked up by Nike. Their latest attempt is an update of their Space Drip project which they started in March last year, where they got 19 digital artists to design their own sneakers. For the new release of Space Drip, RTFKT has got a completely new group of 19 artists to design sneakers with Air Force 1 as a base. In addition, each NFT can be “forged”, a mechanism that basically means that NFT can be redeemed for real shoes. The project has become popular enough to capture the attention of the likes of Paris Hilton, who has used her platform to promote the project.

The NFT world is still stuck in suspicion and bad actors, even a year after the term became a household name. But it is in line with the course given that in any room that really advocates democratized use, you will have a certain amount of bad actors. It is still true that the basic utility of an NFT, which proves ownership of an asset in the blockchain, is an incredibly important and useful step in the evolution of space. RTFKT has used sneakers as a kind of analogue to the way NFTs work, and by doing so has tried to normalize NFTs and change the way sneakers are designed in general.

PATRICK MCGRAW: So what is Space Drip?

STEVEN VASILEV: Our goal since we started RTFKT has been to democratize access to the creation of NFTs, and we wanted to use sneakers as a way to do that. So over a year ago, we brought in a list of 19 artists (some of them as young as 14 years old), from the community that we found through social media. The first thing we did was get them to make a shell for a popular character that we made called Space Drip. It went viral unintentionally and became a big meme. So each of the artists made their own version of that character. We promised the owners of the NFTs that they would eventually be able to use their NFTs to redeem sneakers.

MCGRAW: How did you choose the artists involved in Space Drip 2?

VASILEV: All three of us founders went on Twitter and chose artists that we were fans of. We found people from different age groups, with different fashion interests and with different gaming interests. We have a very large network of creators that we all follow and that we reached out to. Many of them had never made an NFT release, but were interested in similar creative circles.

MCGRAW: Why did you decide to use Air Force 1 as a base?

VASILEV: We were actually acquired by Nike in the process of making Space Drip, so we thought it would be a great opportunity, instead of dropping them on our own RTFKT shoes, to do so on an Air Force One, which is the most iconic sneaker is used in customization.

MCGRAW: Can these shoes he redeemed for a real physical shoe?

VASILEV: Yes, we came up with the “forging” mechanism over a year ago, which basically means that someone can redeem their NFT for a physical pair of shoes.

MCGRAW: Why is it important to use NFTs for this project?

VASILEV: These are the first shoes that have NFTs in them. NFTs solve the problems around sneakers with authenticity, forgeries and forgery, because an NFT shows who owns it and who redeemed that shoe on the blockchain. So there’s a second layer of authentication, and you can not be better than the blockchain because everything is transparent. The same technology is going to be in every job we ever do from clothing and apparel. So it’s pretty historic, because we envision most brands and companies doing this in three to four years.

MCGRAW: And when you say that NFT is in the shoe, what do you mean by that?

VASILEV: This means that you can use the phone to scan the NFT tag on the shoe. It takes you to a page that confirms the authenticity and shows you the NFT that was used for that shoe.

MCGRAW: Why were the sneakers the format you decided to use? RTFKT is already known for sneakers, but when you talk about it, it seems like the sneaker is an ideal form for you.

VASILEV: Personally, I was very rooted in the sneaker scene before RTFKT. I ran a sneaker specialization. But basically, what we have seen is that sneakers have become marketable assets for Gen Z, the status elements that children use to show what culture they follow, what they are a part of and what they see. They have become goods for children. People buy them, never use them, create content and then resell them. We thought we could do this in a more seamless way with RTFKT, but we also realized that people still value what they have in their physical presence. And that’s why we created the smile mechanism.

MCGRAW: Do you think there will come a time when people will get over the connection to physical objects and be satisfied with just a purely digital thing?

VASILEV: 100%. We think in three to five years, people will be less worried about what they have physically and care more about their digital assets. One reason for this is sustainability. Finally, blockchain and crypto will be very sustainable as it moves away from proof of work to proof of state. And secondly, most people only collect physical assets as opposed to using them, and eventually digital assets will start to surpass physical assets in that regard.

Right now we are in a very early stage of NFTs and this concept of Metaverse, but once it is actually developed and you have a couple of RTFKT NFTs, you will be able to use them in different games or use them across different marketplaces, and with AR technology. So you can wear glasses or contact lenses, and you can see people’s virtual clothes on top of what they’re wearing.

MCGRAW: In the future scenario, how do you see RTFKT expanding as a business?

VASILEV: We see RTFKT as the home of all things luxury, streetwear and culture. The most important way we see ourselves as having market dominance is to support the creative economy. This is something we are passionate about – we have always collaborated with artists who come from backgrounds that would not normally have great collaborations. We also believe that RTFKT will in the future be taken over by children who are now 12 years old and play Minecraft. Our goal is really to pave the way and show people what is possible to be creative in this room.

MCGRAW: When it comes to the suspicious aspects of NFTs, do you think it will always be a part of the room to some degree, given that it is about democratization and not everyone has the best intentions?

VASILEV: Surely. In any room where money is involved, you are going to have bad actors. Right now the problem is that it is a bit technical for many people, so it is easier for scammers to operate. But when companies like ourselves get into it and develop our own friction-free marketplaces and make access easier and technology generally improved, people will be more aware of the type of fraud that takes place.

MCGRAW: And how do you really educate people?

VASILEV: One way is through collaboration with people from the traditional world, for example with Jeff Staple. For that decline, we allowed credit card purchases for people unfamiliar with wallets, and we sold NFT for $ 1. The NFT generated over $ 700,000 in wealth for everyone who bought it. So it brought a lot of new people into this room. We collaborated with Takashi Murakami, who brought us into the art world. We had an exhibition at Gagosian. People understand slowly, and I think it only takes people who buy NFTs to enter society. We are basically building a new culture, and everyone in our community is very happy to help on board and share information. We have built a wonderful community and we always welcome new people.

Watch our FRONT PAGE interview with RTFKT again here.