While the metaverse hype in late 2021 was soaring, the truth is that, if you were a gamer, there was no metaverse. Instead, “the metaverse” was a series of distinct platforms with separate economies vying for player attention. The Genesis Curry Flow changed all that by being the first wearable a player could own and take across metaverse platforms. With no traditional media support, we persuaded the gaming platforms to get behind our vision and promote us to their communities. The result changed the metaverse irrevocably and honored one of the world’s greatest athletes who was permanently changing the game of basketball for good.

The lead-up to the drop began with a simple video asset, a “loot box” that gamers recognize as a sign that something exciting is coming. The loot box was distributed throughout the gaming social channels of Decentraland, Gala Games, The Sandbox and RKL. This was followed by a video asset of our “Shoe Locker” teasing the cross-game interoperability. Finally, a 30-second video of our Curry Flow NFT moving through the metaverse platforms, starting with real-life Stephen Curry, was dropped to the same gaming audiences. The video captured the core idea by revolving on an axis from one “world” to the next while keeping the sneaker and player central to each world.

The 2,974 Genesis Curry Flow NFTs are 3D high-fidelity video assets in five distinct rarities, each focusing on a unique aspect of Steph’s game. The NFTs were built on the Polygon blockchain, which is carbon neutral, and were sold directly to interested buyers from a Curry Brand website that we created, with an embedded link to OpenSea, the primary NFT trading platform, where holders could immediately buy and sell the NFTs. Each variant of the sneaker, airdropped to our locker, came with its own specific utility, adding to the value of the NFT. It glowed in Decentraland, a custom basketball court was built for game play in The Sandbox, and the sneaker earned Gala token in Gala Games. These factors helped propel the sneakers to massive desirability, reaching value never seen before for an Under Armour product — the rarest sneakers traded for a value upward of $55,000 at the height of the drop.