Nike teases upcoming ‘Airphoria’ NFT sneaker hunt on Fortnite

In the recently released promotional video, Nike’s logo for its Web3 platform, “.Swoosh,” features alongside the logos for Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and Fortnite.

Nike, the athletic clothing and footwear behemoth, is potentially on the verge of launching a series of sneaker-themed nonfungible tokens (NFTs) within Fortnite, the enormously popular online video game from Epic Games.

This initiative could represent a substantial chance for traditional gamers to engage with Web3, considering Fortnite's massive user base of over 242.9 million active players in the past month as reported by Active Player.

Nike indicated the impending "ultimate Sneakerhunt" set to commence on June 20, through a June 16 post on its various social media outlets.

Accompanying the announcement, a short video featuring the Air Max logos of both Fortnite and Nike set against a sky filled with drifting clouds was shared. The video transitioned to unveil the name of the sneaker hunt, "Airphoria," and concluded by showcasing Nike's Web3 platform, .Swoosh, in conjunction with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine logo.

Current details are scant, but the NFT community is speculating that Nike might have constructed an NFT-based game using Fortnite Creative 2.0, a tool that lets users fabricate their own virtual island game maps using Fortnite resources.

As one Twitter user pointed out, “Fortnite recently launched Fortnite Creative 2.0, which has a robust map-building mode similar to game creation on ROBLOX. I speculate that Nike might have used this mode to create a game. Two years ago, Nike also built a game on ROBLOX, although it didn't incorporate NFT[s] back then.”

While it's not definitively stated that NFTs will feature in Airphoria, the involvement of .Swoosh suggests a strong likelihood, especially considering Epic Games’ supportive position towards NFT gaming.

Recently, Nike’s NFT division has been escalating its efforts to penetrate the traditional gaming market. On June 1, .Swoosh revealed plans to integrate its NFTs into games developed by EA Sports, the company behind globally successful franchises like Fifa. However, it remains unconfirmed which EA Sports games will ultimately feature Nike NFTs.