One of the issues everyone has with NFTs is that their use cases are a stretch or seem to be an unnecessary thing that complicates things instead of making them convenient. The meme is that people who buy NFTs do not own anything but a link to a JPEG image hosted on an unreliable server that may go down at any moment rendering your token useless. While not entirely correct, this description perfectly reflects the concerns of most users.
NFTs are not only for speculations and images of monkeys. A non-fungible token can have great utility when implemented with intent and consideration. Nike demonstrates that you can use NFTs and still avoid being ridiculed even by the biggest critics of the concept.
In 2021, the company purchased RTFKT, a development company creating digital shoes for the metaverse, but had an array of interesting products that were adjacent to the vision of the future that Nike has for its brand. Just a year later, Nike sells Air Force 1 CloneX sneakers as NFTs that come attached to a real pair that can be resold together with the token.
A transaction like this would make the corporation richer (5% of the sale value is held as a royalty fee) and provide it with information about the lifecycle of a unique shoe which seems insignificant for 10 pairs that are currently being sold but may play a huge role in the future with the expansion of the technology.
In general, this move seems to be natural for the shoemaker whose items are resold at 10x the initial price and more. Many legendary pairs cost a small fortune on the secondhand market. NFTs, even those that disgust elitists among the crypto community, are great, pun intended, pairing to these unique sneakers.
The company says that it will slowly develop new interesting features that will be available to token holders further increasing the market value of such items. The 5% fee seems more than reasonable considering that many platforms where you can resell something take a larger cut (up to 14%). It looks like Nike found an actual use case for non-fungible tokens!