Puma, the German sports apparel company, has announced the unveiling of the first-ever Metaverse website experience called Black Station. It features exclusive Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) along with limited edition redeemable physical sneakers that will be launched as part of its ‘Futuregrade’ show during the ongoing New York Fashion Week (NYFW). Puma Black Station is an immersive and interactive portal for consumers to experience the future of the brand. Puma is now launching a digital collectible as the latest sportswear brand in Adidas Originals.
above metaverse website, visitors will enter a hyper-realistic digital lobby space with three separate portals. The first two portals, accessible from September 7th, will unveil the exclusive never-before-seen Nitro NFRNO and Nitro Fastroid sneakers tied to Puma’s recent NitroPass NFT Mint. The sneakers debuted at NYFW.
Black Station Metaverse is created by venture company FTR. Metaverse is designed with Unreal Engine 5 with support for state-of-the-art graphics.
“Twenty years ago, Black Station was Puma’s home to some of the most innovative designs in our fashion,” said Adam Petrick, Puma’s Chief Brand Officer. “Given the boundaries we’re pushing in terms of product design and digital vision, we felt it was right to bring back Black Station as a new portal for all digital explorations of fashion, sports performance, our heritage classics and innovation.”
It’s worth noting that this isn’t Puma’s first foray into Web 3. Earlier this year, Puma integrated NFTs into a sponsorship campaign with football club Manchester City, including limited edition NFTs of Puma boots worn by footballer Sergio Aguero.
Puma’s Futrograde collection is the latest in a trend of apparel and luxury brands linking physical objects to digital assets called “phygitals.” In May of this year, luxury brand Prada issued NFTs that can be redeemed for physical goods such as shirts.
Puma’s use of Metaverse space is not new. Brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Estee Lauder have designed similar spaces for individuals to browse digital representations of their products up close.
