LeBron Wore an NFT Shoe 😱

Plus we got Star Wars on FLOW, Candy Supply Changes, FIFA and AFL sellout, and all the top stories of the week.

May 06, 2023

I never thought I’d write a headline about a shoe.

But here we are.

This week, LeBron wore an RTFKT shoe prior to Game 1 against the Warriors, shortly after being “onboarded” by the Nike-owned NFT brand.

Ah, Infinite Objects, is there anything they can’t do?

But for real, we always knew that RTFKT would in some way link up with Nike’s most prominent active athlete - we just didn’t know how.

After all, the brand made headlines last Fall when they purposely changed the metadata on one of the NFTs in their Clone X collection - a change that was designed to represent LeBron, in what was a clear indication that the King was nigh.

Flash forward to this week, and the shoe-wearing sent shockwaves through the NFT world - yet despite the noise on Twitter, I still think it was a highly underrated piece of news.

Think about it.

We are in the BEAR MARKET. And the general public thinks NFTs are DUMB.

Yet here’s the all-time leading scorer in the NBA casually supporting a well-known collection, and wearing it alongside his ever-important pregame “fit”.

In a bull market, this would have sent the Clone X floor price into the stratosphere. But in the bear market, its but a footnote in what is now known as the week of pepe.

You can read more about LeBron x RTFKT here.

Also, what’s with the stank face?

Anyways.

Let’s get onto all the news from this past week, featuring:

Top Shot Redemptions update.
Star Wars coming to FLOW.
Flovatar’s Massive Soccer Media Deal.
FIFA+ and AFL pack sell outs.
Candy Digital supply reduction for MLB.

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👑 Free King Charles NFT | 30 seconds

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🏈 ALL DAY Daily Playbook Challenge | 30 seconds

The folks at AD are not calming down after the draft! They’ve got daily and weekly Playbooks going down right now, and the starter version is pretty easy to do.

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As you saw above, SWOOPS is coming in hot this month. The launch is May 17th and costs $100 (and you can pay with fiat). Be sure to sign up!

🚀 TS Redemptions Go For a Ride

I think Top Shot really nailed it here.

All the other issues be damned, they finally created a mechanism that has made watching the NBA super fun and speculative.

Just look at the Redemption floors - LeBron has almost 2x since launch!

And as many 2nd round series remain relatively uncertain on outcome (and loaded with potential surprises/shocking injuries), we’re in for more market turbulence before the week is out.

★ Star Wars Coming To Cryptoys on FLOW

I did not see this one coming.

After weeks of me oozing over the He-Man collectibles on Cryptoys (notably Skeletor), the FLOW-based company comes out of nowhere and drops the Star Wars news - right in time for May the 4th!

Details on this one:

The Drop is May 24th.
First drop features Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia.
There will be 30,000 total NFTs in this edition.
Five rarities: Common (40%) Rare (30%) Legendary (20%) Grail (9%) Ultra Grail (1%)

Very very cool.

⚽ Flovatar Makes a Massive Media Push

You may or may not know Flovatar - a project built on FLOW where you can customize fun little characters, and where each piece of clothing is a specific NFT.

Based in Europe, the company has announced a massive distribution deal with two of the world’s BIGGEST soccer newspapers, all part of a new initiative titled Sportvatar!

Gazetta is the biggest sports publication in Italy, and Marca is the biggest in Spain, with over 100M readers!

We don’t yet know WHAT the integration will look like (as in, will the Avatars be featured in the newspaper itself? Will readers be invited to mint?), but the fact that this type of deal was made in the bear market is a big positive.

You can also build a test one for free to see how it works.

📦 FIFA+ and AFL Packs Sell Out in Bear Market

Here’s some positive news from two sports collections we rarely cover.

FIFA+ Collect:

Sold out its Qatar2022 Greatest Goals collection.
8,000 packs sold total ($9.99 each).
This was their first “small drop”.
Previously they tried to sell up to 500,000 packs per drop (lol wtf).

I have often criticized the project for simply raking in tons of money from fans and paying no attention to supply, so it’s nice to see them make a change!

AFL (Aussie Rules) Mint on Flow:

Sold out “Round 5+6”.
375 packs sold total ($25 each).
Third straight sell out of their Mint Moments series.
Next drop is coming Thursday.

I don’t follow the AFL, but they are doing a great job keeping the Moments scarce, alongside a $10 starter pack. Next drop is this coming week!

⚾ Candy Reduces Weekly Supply

Speaking of listening to the community and the market, Candy Digital has announced a reduction to their Plays of The Week drops.

Released every Monday, the packs costs $20 and feature the best highlights from the past week - a great evolution from last year’s “Play of the Day”.

The only problem is that they have not been selling out!

They did for the first two weeks of the season, but have struggled to sell since, despite having a low pack count of just 848 weekly and featuring the chance to pull Epic tier (/10) and Rare tier (/35).

So, change is coming:

Colenotes:

The mint count will be lower than it has been.
Potentially fewer packs will be sold each week.
Candy will continue to burn 90% of unsold packs.

These are great changes to supply, however I still think its an uphill battle as baseball interest drastically drops off come this time of year.

The 0-2 second round Maple Leafs have a hater-in-chief, who constantly wears the opposing team’s jersey at home games in Toronto.

This clip has been making the rounds and its fantastic.

I got nothing else for ya this week, folks.

**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”

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