Hopping on board the metaverse train, Nike has filed several new trademark applications that could indicate the athletic apparel company will sell virtual shoes and clothing in the not-too distant future.
Oregon-based Nike filed applications for NIKE, JUST DO IT and the swoosh logo on October 27, according to Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney, who has filed over 6,500 trademarks for clients.
On October 28, it filed additional applications for the Air Jordan and Jumpman logos, according to CNBC.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Nike with a request for comment for this story.
Speaking with CNBC, Gerben said the filings ‘would very clearly be a nod to this idea of the metaverse,’ adding that they also provide the company protection if others try to use Nike’s brand.
Nike filed several trademark applications that could indicate the company will sell virtual shoes and clothing in the metaverse
Oregon-based Nike filed applications for NIKE, JUST DO IT and the swoosh logo on October 27
On October 28, it filed additional applications for the Air Jordan and Jumpman logos
‘If you want to police your trademarks in that world, it’s going to be easier if you just own registrations for virtual goods,’ Gerben told the news outlet.
‘You can imagine the value that Nike’s name or logo holds if you were just selling, so the more protection you build into your trademarks, arguably the more value you’re adding to the book value of the company.’
Nike is also looking to employ people with metaverse-linked jobs, according to The Fashion Law.
On October 23, the company posted a job description for a virtual material designer
On October 23, the company posted a job description for a virtual material designer.
This role will ‘play a key role in redefining our digital world, ushering us into the metaverse, and growing our team’s capabilities,’ the job listing said.
Nike has made some headway in having its apparel and sneakers be used in a virtual environment before
Nike has made some headway in having its apparel and sneakers be used in a virtual environment before.
In 2019, Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite game, partnered with Nike Air Jordan on branded outfits, Bloomberg reported.
The company has also partnered with Roblox as well.
The move comes approximately one week after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in an effort to distance itself from the harsh criticism it has received from lawmakers and users and fulfill CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision to have users work and play in virtual world environments.
The metaverse is an environment similar to the OASIS in Ernest Cline’s novel and the blockbuster Warner Bros. movie Ready Player One.
The fictional OASIS, created by a Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs-like character named James Halliday, lets people, including the novel’s protagonist, Wade Watts, put on a headset and enter a virtual world where they can be anybody or do anything, all from the comfort of their own home.
In the OASIS, users can create avatars, including popular movie characters, such as the Iron Giant (pictured)
The move comes approximately one week after Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in part to fulfill CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision to have users work and play in virtual world environments
People enter a virtual world where they can be anybody or do anything, from the comfort of their home
Users can create avatars, including popular movie characters, such as the Iron Giant, so they are able to look like anything they wish from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed.
They can go off to far away worlds for rock climbing trips with Batman, visit distant locales they could never afford in real life or become best friends (or more) with people they’ve never met in real life.
Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, published in 1992, touches on the subject.
After a worldwide economic collapse, the US has been broken up into different regions owned by powerful organizations and entrepreneurs who use their regions for various purposes, often nefarious in nature.
People spend much of their time in the ‘Metaverse’, a virtual multi-player world where people own virtual homes, visit ‘bars’ and go celebrity spotting.
Stephenson is credited with creating the ‘metaverse’ phrase as a successor to the internet.