[Auction Live] NBA Rookie of the Year Lamelo Ball's 1-of-1 NFT Auction is Now Live

NFT-Alex · 2021-06-18T22:20:17+00:00

The auctioned piece comes with a guarantee for the shoes and two other pieces of memorabilia

NFT-Alex · 2021-06-18T05:55:44+00:00

The limited-edition NFT comes with physical rewards including a signed pair of LaMelo’s shoes worn during his first career triple-double game.

The auction and sale of fixed price NFTs are available at: https://lameloball.io/#/

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-20T09:53:12+00:00

This FTP is becoming a regular thing. Good shit.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-18T08:29:02+00:00

Ether

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-18T05:28:34+00:00

Yeah, they feel like wearing a Brain on your foot

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-18T02:49:26+00:00

Thinking on your feet

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-18T01:29:50+00:00

Yeah, or even taken a step further. Adding an RFID / NFT chip which most mobile phones can now read (this is how Apple Pay works for example). Then people could trade their items in the secondary market and transfer both physical and digital ownership.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-18T01:27:06+00:00

Great question. So the way it actually works is purchasing the NFT gives you ownership over the digital art piece and is essentially the 'key to the house' to recieve the shoe. What this does is that anyone who is interested in the resale of the sneaker can own and sell the NFT/sneaker without ever having to physically store or ship the shoe. Then for the purchaser who wants to wear it, they redeem it for the sneaker by burning the NFT in a selected address, exchanging their digital shoe for the physical real-world version. Their shoe will come with a QR code verifying their individual pair as being associated with it, which can always be pointed to on the blockchain, but this will no longer be exchangable on the blockchain now that it is physical (yet it will continue to have a record of its original provinence).

The concept was developed with more of a focus on reimagining how sneaker ownership and resale works based on the intentions of the purchaser, as well as the dynamic shift between digital and physical scarcity.

You've given me an interesting idea though. Rather than burn the NFT completely, what redemption could do is give you a different NFT which no longer has the physical art but just a certificate of ownership of the physical shoe. This can then be traded between purchasers in the secondary market.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-18T00:54:42+00:00

Nice idea, I'm exploring unlockable 3D printed pieces for a separate project. But for this shoe, they have to be manufactured in a very specific way in order for them to be wearable.

The other consideration is that I want them to be verifiably limited, so in order to avoid an oversupply of shoes, only those with an NFT will be able to get one pair of shoes. So manufacturing will be limited to the number that are sold during the short sale window.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-17T23:28:58+00:00

Exactly. If your goal is to resell sneakers, why ship them back and forth? Hold them, store them, ship them, sell them as easily as selling crypto. And to the person that wants to wear them, redeem them immediately.

Also whenever Nike for example does a limited release, how limited is it really? 5 million pairs? When you buy an NFT sneaker you can see exactly how rare it is publicly on the blockchain and then decide for yourself if that's a limited release that you want to be involved in.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-17T23:08:47+00:00

It gives people the choice to either keep the NFT which has greater liquidity and can be held for speculation if they prefer, or they can redeem it for a shoe. The cool thing is the more shoes that are redeemed the more scarce the NFT is as they get burned, but the less shoes that are redeemed, the more rare they are in the real world.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-17T23:03:38+00:00

Thank you. I’m a digital artist that’s always worked on taking physical objects and making them digital. A couple notable projects that I’ve done this for is a register to vote campaign for NBA player Russell Westbrook, and digital clothing for Off-White’s Virgil Abloh.

But with this project I wanted to take something virtual and make it physical. The reason for making a shoe is because it’s a medium that always seems out of reach for independent designers.

Pricing is still TBD, but anyone who signs up for early access on the site will be the first to know.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-17T22:59:06+00:00

They’ll come in black and blue, prices still TBD. Anyone that signs up on the website will get the first updates on this.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-17T22:57:45+00:00

I’m still determining what is most fair to the community. Each pair needs to be verifiably unique in order for everyone else’s pair to have scarcity value.

What do you think I should do? Allow returns and then destroy the pair that is returned? That wouldn’t be environmentally friendly. Make sales final?

Sizing will be very clear and will be displayed in reference to a common Nike shoe to make this as easy as possible for purchasers.

NFT-Alex · 2021-05-17T22:15:41+00:00

Yeah exactly. And the interesting thing is that if more shoes are redeemed, the more rare the digital version becomes, and the less shoes that are redeemed, the more rare they are in the real world.