Tech Cloud reports original.
As one of the world's largest footwear manufacturers, Nike recently obtained a patent called "CryptoKicks", which is issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which can tokenize the ownership of shoes.
"Forbes" once listed blockchain technology as one of the key trends in the luxury industry, so why did Nike, which is mainly engaged in shoes and clothing and sports products, begin to involve complex blockchain business?
Known as the blockchain that can reconstruct the world, can it change the sports shoes and apparel industry represented by Nike and even the entire fashion circle?
Consumer goods ice-breaking blockchain luxury brands are not far behind
It is understood that CryptoKicks will operate through the Ethereum blockchain. This tokenization of ownership works as follows: Every time a customer buys a shoe, the token is unlocked.
To facilitate unlocking, the 10-digit shoe identification code will be linked to the owner identification code, effectively linking the owner to the shoe.
The token will use the ERC-721 non-replaceable token (NFT) standard, and all links will be recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. Both Nike and users can rely on blockchain technology to track product ownership and verify their authenticity through identification codes.
In addition to expressing ownership of the shoe, the patent also allows other functions. NFT will record some basic information related to each shoe, such as color, design and various style attributes. The patent will provide the shoe owner with more control over the shoe.
For example, the owner will be able to set limits on the number of production versions. They can also grant rights to third parties who can participate in the design of shoes.
Similar to CryptoKitties, the owner will also be able to "breed" other varieties of shoes.
This process will have actual manufacturing authority, and the ownership of each generation will be associated with the original shoe.
According to the application model of blockchain in consumer products, Nike's transition to tokenization may be for the purpose of combating counterfeiting. In the global market, luxury and high-end footwear are gaining popularity.
Taking China as an example, Nike's revenue increased by 22% in the third quarter of last year. A second-hand shoe trading platform has also been established in China, and buyers can purchase exclusive shoes and sell them in the second-hand market for profit.
This event is showing a new prospect for the blockchain economy. Some shoe collectors will be interested in using the token to buy a pair of precious shoes.
Nike is using the blockchain to "Just do it", we will see a larger scale of the digital economy market, and for the new crypto economy in the digital economy, we currently only have some patents. But this, after all, opened a new era of blockchain + consumer products.
Coincidentally, not only mass consumer product manufacturers have begun to test the blockchain, but even luxury brands have also cast an olive branch on the blockchain.
In May last year, French luxury goods group LVMH launched its first global blockchain certification platform, Aura.
The platform can help consumers to trace Louis Vuitton (Louis Vuitton) and Christian Dior perfume line (Parfums Christian Dior), trace their sources and other identity information throughout.
This information includes every link of the production process of raw materials used in the product, production and transportation, so that these links are all transparent to consumers. At the same time, this information will only be disclosed to consumers who purchase this product, so as to achieve Confidentiality.
Aura aims to track every "stage" of products starting from raw materials through technical means, so as to solve the problem of counterfeit goods in the luxury and fashion industries. On this basis, customers can also control their own data freely and prevent Data leakage.
In addition to large and powerful fashion consortia such as Nike and LVMH, they have begun to pay attention to the application of blockchain, and some independent designer brands have also begun to use blockchain technology as a breakthrough point to achieve the personalization of their own brands in order to enhance the consumer experience sense.
Extending the diverse application prospects of blockchain to the field of consumer products is worth expecting
"Blockchain" is a relatively macro technical terminology. Although it is linked to the financial and Internet industries, its complex theory and operating structure are still difficult to be quickly understood by ordinary people.
How to present this abstract concept in front of consumers and ordinary people in order to serve them has become one of the problems facing the fashion trend and the shoe and apparel industry.
However, from the operation of industry giants such as Nike and LVMH, in fact, the application prospect of blockchain technology in this industry has been initially observed.
In 2019, "environmental protection" and "sustainability" have become the goals pursued by the entire shoe and apparel industry.
Not only old fashion houses and designers from Europe have begun to pay attention to "sustainability" as their selling point, sports products giants such as Nike and Adidas also launched more environmentally friendly products through technology development and other means.
This "environmental protection" boom will not only dissipate quickly in the short term, but may also become a long-term responsibility for major brands.
At present, including French luxury giant Kering Group, European fashion e-commerce platform Zalando, American fashion retail group PVH Corp, Dutch fast fashion retail group C & A, many fashion, luxury and retail giants have participated in the cooperation of Organic Cotton Traceability Pilot project-The project uses a variety of technologies including blockchain technology and DNA spray marking, and users can trace the origin of organic cotton.
In the future, this technology may be used to track the raw materials of various footwear products.
Adidas released 100% recycling shoes FUTURECRAFT.LOOP this year. If you can rely on blockchain technology to allow consumers to fully track all aspects of their shoes from birth to rebirth, then the environmental protection concept that the brand hopes to convey can be more intuitively presented. In front of the user.
In this way, consumers can clearly understand whether the brand they are looking for has really made efforts in environmental protection and sustainable development, and then choose whether to pay for it.
In addition, blockchain is also widely used in the field of consumer products anti-counterfeiting.
The blockchain hash algorithm, consensus algorithm and distributed ledger technology build a decentralized system, which can ensure that the data is not easily tampered with, and the time stamp technology can be used to trace the circulation data of commodities.
This is undoubtedly the gospel of anti-counterfeiting and tracing. The cross-validation of data from producers, consumers and supervisors restricts the manufacture of fakes, and is expected to combat fakes to a large extent.
The distributed ledger of the blockchain will record every node, and once it is recorded, it cannot be tampered with. To a certain extent, it can avoid the behavior of maliciously changing information during the traceability process, which also increases the credibility of the traceability data, and also Certain conditions increase the cost of counterfeiting.
Enter the information of each stage in the circulation, and the enterprise supervises in the background, so that the counterfeiter has no way to start.
Whether it is a brand or a consumer, once a problem is discovered, it can be traced back to every circulation link immediately.
The cost of trust, as part of the transaction cost, is much higher than expected.
Taking "CryptoKicks" as an example, the only digital asset produced by it is actually the Token that often appears in the blockchain field, and it can also contain points, assets, and certificates.
If it is further expanded, it can also represent honor signs, identity marks and confirmation tools, system asset quantitative indicators, system passes and system protection, that is to say, it can become a representative of the rights or values of anything.
By allowing consumers to obtain unique and exclusive tokens, they can verify the authenticity of products from all angles and levels, and due to the complex algorithms and encryption technologies in the blockchain field, it is almost impossible to copy tokens, and such imitation Unlike counterfeiting, which is completely different from physical imitation in the real world, the cost has far exceeded the scope of the counterfeiting industry.
It can be said that as long as there is no technical loophole in the brand official itself, the anti-counterfeiting method of "giving the product exclusive tokens to enable users to track" is almost unbreakable.
At present, most of the mature application cases of blockchain technology still exist in the financial industry. Although this technical concept did not have any limitations at the beginning of its birth, it must be widely popularized in people ’s daily lives. It takes some time.
A series of consumer brands represented by Nike has tested water in this field, which is enough to prove that the blockchain is worthwhile and will bring changes to the fashion industry in the future.
[Science Cloud Report Original]
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