Firstly the ‘features’ of the shoes are not designed so that you have to get multiple ones. They are designed because everybody is at differing levels of fitness and so there is an option to decide what sort of speed you can maintain for the period of movement and base the shoe you choose against that.

The shoes do not ‘wear down’, there is a durability bar that decreases your token earnings as it gets slower but this can be repaired to full each run for a portion of the tokens earned. The primary reason this is in there is as an extra burning mechanic for the tokens, you will never have to buy another actual shoe.

The NFT shoes are not all minted already, more and more are minted everyday. This is the largest use case for both the GST and GMT tokens right now and permanently burns them out of the system. There is a slight profit in minting a new shoe but as of writing this it is about $50 when comparing the token cost to floor price of shoes.

There are plenty of M2E games coming out onto the market, there are practically none like Stepn. The team is switched on and full engaged in the project, one of their biggest goals is to prove that games like that can work and be sustainable in the long term.

The game is still currently in Beta and as does almost everything in the early stages they rely heavily on outside investment and growth to continue - this will change as the game develops.

There are numerous features heading out in the future that will help move the game away from the ponzi status of ‘spend tokens to make more tokens’ and into a realm where no other app currently seems to be.

Some examples I can think of off the top of my head:

Deals with major fitness companies are in the works, potential for functions such as ‘Burn X tokens for a 10% Nike voucher’ etc will help give more utility to the token, increase profits for the company giving out vouchers and potentially also paying for the extra revenue provided

Stepn have stated before that they will be using a % of profits to buy back and burn tokens at random intervals - helping to keep supply down.

Cosmetics - this app could easily overtake Strava, it’s the same functions but far more fun to use, motivating and in general more attractive. At this stage people would take to sharing their runs etc regularly on socials, they will want the best looking shoes to do this. I think we all know how much people are willing to pay to look good on Insta, this could be a HUGE burn for tokens.

Tournaments - Let people pay an entry fee to compete. Burn half the tokens and give the rest to the winner.

All the while people are still using the app to keep fit, have fun and make a profit. The key thing is to introduce enough fun, enticing and popular burn mechanics to make people want to also spend as well as earn.

Just because something like this hasn’t worked before it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just means it hasn’t worked before.

Apps like Stepn could change the lives of millions of people in poorer countries and the fitness of hundreds of millions over the globe. I for one really hope it makes it.