#250: RTFKT's 36 Minute Pivot
PLUS: 💸 What is Gordon Goner up to?
Earlier this morning I stumbled upon a Space with a bunch of Clone X PFPs chatting. I figured I’d hop in for a brief moment before I continued with my day. It took me a few seconds to orient myself into the conversation and realized that the community was upset with The Offering, RTFKT’s latest activation.
This event was spontaneously teased yesterday and launched today, so there wasn’t much time to speculate. Add that to a robust list of other RTFKT activations:
RTFKT x Air Force 1’s recently arriving at people’s doorsteps
Genesis Dunk forging event that concluded last week
Teaser of a RTFKT-themed Fortnite map
ComplexCon appearance next weekend
…and you start feeling a bit 😵💫 (in a good way though!)
What is The Offering?
The initial distribution and eligibility for forging the Dunk Genesis looked like this:
Simple right? Forge the sneakers before the window closes, with your allocation based on your NFT holdings.
It was…until The Offering came along. The Offering was a way for non-forged Dunk Genesis holders (those that didn’t participate in the initial window) have a say in the physical forging event in an alternative way. Similar to a reactivation campaign of sorts.
How did it work?
Only holders of non-forged Dunk Genesis holders could participate
Each unforged Dunk Genesis = 1 vote
Participants would choose one of two colorways to go into the public pre-sale event on November 20th:
OG Edition
Ghost Edition (a new unrevealed colorway)
At first glance, this looked like a fun activation:
RTFKT provided an opportunity for non-forgers to participate in the decision-making process
There was a surprise and delight moment of a new unrevealed Ghost colorway
This would be a surprise and delight moment for sneaker enthusiasts who weren’t part of the RTFKT community with another Dunk colorway to purchase. Originally, only the Void colorway would be available for the public to purchase.
The RTFKT community generally thought the Ghost colorway was 🔥, which I agree with.
What went wrong?
The RTFKT team had good intentions with The Offering, but there were a few factors that were overlooked or underestimated:
OG colorway supply was locked but not anymore: This departs from previous forging events that capped the total supply for a physical item once the forging window concluded. If a majority of votes were for the OG colorway, the total supply would be unknown until the public sale concluded.
If holders knew this would be a possibility, they may not have forged in the first place. After all, sneakerheads love scarcity and exclusivity.
More importantly, this was a matter of trust. RTFKT provided details about the Dunk Genesis forging event, but **SURPRISE** threw a wrench into the implicit agreement that the final supply would be determined at the end of the forging window.
The Offering rewarded ‘bad’ behavior: Not forging isn’t exactly ‘bad’ behavior, but this event only allowed those who didn’t forge voting rights on which colorway would go to the public pre-sale phase.
You could purchase the unforged Dunk NFTs on the secondary market but 1) how do you know the NFT didn’t participate in the forge event, and 2) if you spent hundreds or thousands of dollars forging these sneakers (they were $222 a pop), do you want to spend more to vote on a community decision?
Cash grab vibes: Some community members felt that this activation was a veiled cash grab, with another sneaker colorway being released to the public instead of exclusive community access.
I disagree with this sentiment, but can understand why some felt this way. After all, this isn’t the first time the community has felt this way.
TLDR, this was the community response:
And that’s why that Space I stumbled upon happened.
RTFKT’s response
So what did the RTFKT team do? Acknowledge the criticism, but continue with The Offering while promising to do better? Wait for the commotion to subside and address the concerns the following week?
Nope.
36 minutes after the announcement, RTFKT hosted a Spaces for the community.
TLDR:
The intention for The Offering was to encourage community members who didn’t forge in the initial window to participate
The Offering wasn’t about the $, but rather providing another mechanic to get more of the community involved in the Dunk Genesis story due to potential constraints in the initial forging window (cost, time, forgot about the window, etc.)
The team has plans to incorporate future mechanics based on historical engagement and NFT holdings. This point reminds me of what Azuki did with their Gus giveaway, which I did not win 😭
Based on community feedback, The Offering has been canceled
There are no additional plans for the Ghost colorway release, but the team will be open to suggestions from the community for creative ways to release this.
The response does not excuse the miscalculation and oversight, but it does show that the team was listening to the community and was able to show their positive intentions. There’s a difference between:
We hear you.
vs.
We hear you and we’re going to do something about it.
vs.
We hear you and we’re going to do something about it right now.
And for that, kudos to the RTFKT for listening and acting in less time than most company meetings 👏
What’s next?
Well, the cat sneaker is out of the bag box. There’s a new Ghost colorway for the Genesis Dunk that community members are drooling at. And RTFKT is putting the ball in the community’s court, asking them to come up with ideas of what fair distribution would look like.
The simple solution would be token-gated access, similar to previous drops and Forging events, which most of the community is supportive of for obvious reasons.
But what if additional layers were added to this release that give a nod to existing community members while providing an opportunity to expand the RTFKT community? I would consider mixing and matching the following elements:
Discounts based on forging history and holding activity
Increased forging allocation (eg: mint 1 pair vs. 10) based on forging and holding history
Creator contests for those outside of the RTFKT community with these sneakers as the prize
Gifting pairs to Nike athletes for awareness. This was already done for Lebron James. Consider adding gamification elements, eg: each Dunk purchased allows you 1 vote for which Nike athlete the sneakers will be gifted to.
We’ll see what happens as the RTFKT team and community go back to the drawing board, together 🤝
Today’s piece is brought to you by Atomic Form. What’s better than having beautiful and expensive digital art in your wallet? Showing it off with a physical display!
Atomic Form sells physical displays and partners with some of the largest names in the digital art space, such as NFT Now’s Gateway Miami event at Art Basel next month. If you’re wondering why the art looks so good, Atomic Form might have a part in that 😉
Gordon Goner goes on a shopping spree
There are many reasons why the NFT market has started heating up again. One of the reasons from a positive vibes perspective is thanks to Gordon Goner (real name Wylie Aronow), the co-founder of BAYC and Yuga Labs.
Earlier this year he stepped back from his role due to health issues and has announced his return to the space in the form of a massive shopping spree, causing many to watch and speculate what he buys next.
It all started with a massive CryptoPunk purchase at 600 ETH ($1.1 million at the time of purchase) earlier this week.
Talk about a coming in HOT 🥵
Since then, Gordon’s gone on a rampage purchasing collections he enjoys or with teams he respects. In chronological order:
Cryptoadz, Sappy seals, Degods, Pudgy Penguins, Deadfellaz, Adam Bomb Squad, Chimpers, Goblintown, Rektguy, 10KTF, Cool Cats, Meebits, Doodles, Azuki, Mocaverse, World of Women, Clone X, Opepen, Squiggles.
As shown with the Punk purchase, Gordon isn’t purchasing from the floor. He’s acquiring some of the rarest NFTs in their respective collections. And he’s not done yet.
It’s not clear why Gordon is buying these NFTs now, but his timing of the market is impeccable. That said, he does provide insight into why he didn’t own these NFTs before:
Additionally, this series of purchases reminds me of when Frank (co-founder of DeGods) did something similar earlier this year, but with the additional motive of better understanding the Ethereum NFT ecosystem. Gordon is purchasing these because he’s here for the culture and community, and of course, wants to have fun like the rest of us.
The voice and soul of BAYC
The primary reason I’m writing this segment isn’t because Gordon is spending eye-watering amounts of ETH.
It’s because of how he’s doing it.
Most of his purchases, especially the earlier ones, either have a story or a joke attached to them, explaining why he purchased them.
An example of a purchase showing respect to other founders in the space:
An example of a purchase with a joke (he has much dirtier ones lol):
Seeing these stories attached to each of these purchases shows me that Gordon Goner was such a pivotal part (duh) in establishing BAYC and Yuga culture. It feels like he was the voice and soul of BAYC when they were just a simple 10k JPEG collection aspiring to be something more.
I don’t know if Gordon was behind the famous ‘Fuck it’ post, but it sure feels like he had at least a part in one of the most memorable posts in NFT history.
Having a founder that ‘gets it’ is invaluable, especially in today’s society. This doesn’t apply to just crypto, web3, or NFTs.
‘Getting it’ isn’t just about the business. It’s about understanding the industry you operate in, the customers and community you cater to, toeing the line of what is acceptable but realizing that the line should sometimes be pushed because it was drawn decades ago.
Gordon Goner is someone that gets it and has been an invaluable part of bringing BAYC and Yuga to where they are today with that ‘fuck it’ attitude against all odds.
So cheers to you for showing your faith in other communities with that same attitude.
Welcome back.
See you next week!
Good to see RTFKT react faster to community feedback than we were used to seeing in the past!