Yahoo Sports Reebok to Partner With Futureverse in AI-metaverse Deal
To step up its virtual game, Reebok has struck an exclusive partnership with Los Angeles-based artificial intelligence and metaverse content firm Futureverse to create AI, Web 3.0, gaming and metaverse experiences for consumers.
The deal aims to expand the sneaker brand’s consumer experiences and customer interactions with its footwear and apparel. Futureverse will drive that effort, and the first project to be introduced under this collaboration is an initiative set for 2024 dubbed “Reebok Impact.”
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The announcement doesn’t offer specifics or cover detailed features, but includes a link to the teaser video and a description that calls it “a mind and heart-bending digital shoe experience that will allow mass consumers to dip their toes into artificial intelligence for the first time.” Apparently, shared experiences will loom large in Reebok Impact, so people can “share major life moments that have shaped who they are and simultaneously impacted the world.”
For Daniel W. Dienst, executive vice chairman of tactical opportunities at Authentic Brands Group, Reebok’s parent company, the arrangement operates on two levels: Broadly, he believes the partnership will “redefine the intersection of fashion, technology and culture,” he said in comments provided to WWD, while for the company itself, it is also “marking a pivotal moment in Reebok’s brand evolution.”
Not that it’s the ABG unit’s first outing into the virtual world. In 2021, Reebok collaborated with rapper A$AP Nast on an NFT collection, and this time last year, the brand filed trademark applications for the metaverse, officially joining a roster of iconic sneaker giants that include Nike, Adidas and Puma and fashion luminaries ranging from Levi’s to Gucci and Versace, to name just a few.
Futureverse cofounders Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald referred to Reebok’s motto, “life is not a spectator sport,” in a prepared statement calling the partnership “a testament to our shared belief that life is a journey of active participation, not observation.”
Their stated goal in this partnership is to redefine digital fashion, the pair said. “It’s an invitation for consumers to step into a world in which their digital footprint is as significant as their physical one. Together, we’re pioneering digital possibilities where every step tells a story, and every story shapes our world.”
The sentiment strikes at a crucial aspect of this deal, one that may set it apart from standard metaverse fare, and that’s Futureverse itself. The business is an amalgamation of 11 different companies that offers a unique blend of AI and metaverse along with a focus on content — it’s working to bring a music and entertainment AI platform to market and developing a text-to-music platform named JEN-1 on Alibaba’s cloud.
The company has won over plenty of fans, including FIFA, which licenses its mobile soccer game AI League; talent agency CAA, with which it just signed a tech deal in November, and investors that drove its Series A to $54 million in July. Those are noteworthy moves during a year that saw metaverse momentum take a nosedive.
Then again, the metaverse isn’t just a single-purpose technology that runs virtual worlds, especially the way Futureverse approaches it. In previous comments to the tech press, McDonald explained that the tech can also enable other features and experiences.
Now that Reebok has joined the list, the duo is betting that consumers looking for new kinds of virtual experiences will follow.
“Reebok is deeply entrenched in consumer trends and transformative technology,” Todd Krinsky, Reebok’s chief executive officer, said in the announcement. With the Futureverse partnership and the upcoming launch of Reebok Impact, the brand hopes “to transcend traditional boundaries of innovation to engage our consumers in the digital evolution of our products in ways that redefine the realm of possibility.”
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