It’s been a busy few years for Authentic Brands.
Last year, they purchased Reebok from Adidas for a cool 2.1 billion euros. As they finalize this purchase, the company is now taking concrete steps towards the NFT market, promising to offer cryptocurrency payments in the near future.
Some say it’s a risky strategy, but Reebok doesn’t really have much of a choice if it wants to remain competitive. Is this really the right call for Authentic Brands? Could this tactic provide Reebok with an advantage over Nike and Adidas?
What Is Authentic Brands?
Based in New York City, Authentic Brands focuses on the athletic world and owns more than 50 brands. It also owns the rights to various celebrities, such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.
Founded in 2010, the company has spent the last decade or so buying companies like Juicy Couture, Aeropostale, Nautica, Sports Illustrated, Van Huesen, and countless others. BlackRock is the largest shareholder of Authentic Brands.
Does Reebok Need Help?
When Authentic Brands acquired Reebok, the company was in dire straits.
By this point, Reebok had gradually declined to a point where it held a minuscule 1.1% market share of the sports footwear industry.
Adidas had purchased the brand to revive the company, but failed to do so. In fact, Adidas sold Reebok for a loss of $1.3 billion – which reveals a lot about Adidas’ confidence in the future of this brand.
Now it’s Authentic Brands’ turn to try something new. The question is whether they have what it takes to bring this classic athletic name back from the dead.
Will NFTs Save Reebook?
Could NFTs help Reebok make a comeback? Maybe.
The problem is that almost all of its competitors are also getting involved in NFTs, so the competition will be fierce.
That being said, Reebok could stand out by investing more time and resources into NFTs than their competitors, who may be a little more conservative. It’s a risky move, but the payoff could be worth it in the end.
The Details of their Plan
We already know that Reebok plans to start accepting cryptocurrencies and NFTs as payment for their products in the near future. But what about creating their own NFTs?
They’ve been a little vague about this part. On the other hand, Reebok and A$AP NAST released a few limited-edition NFTs back in December of 2021, so they’ve already taken concrete steps towards this goal.
As far as we know, the new NFTs will be dropping “sometime this year,” and we expect more details to be released eventually.
Authentic Brands CEO Jamie Salter says he wants to boost Reebok’s revenue by $2 billion within the next year, and by $6 billion within the next five years.
One thing’s for sure: he’s going to have to get pretty creative if he wants to make that happen.
