NBA Brooklyn Nets basketball star and Calaxy Co-Founder Spencer Dinwiddie, announced today a partnership with SUKU’s carbon-negative INFINITE NFT Marketplace to issue the first non-fungible token (NFT) linked to a physically redeemable collectible.
Using SUKU’s digital ledger-enabled tag, Dinwiddie has issued his signature, game-worn K8IROS crypto sneakers. The SUKU ledger verifies and secures the authenticity of this one-of-one NFT drop, available at auction beginning July 22nd, 2021.
All profits from the drop will go to the Dinwiddie Family Foundation, an organization that empowers disadvantaged and at-risk youth through fitness, literacy, and educational programming.
Drop Summary
- K8IROS “crypto sneaker” NFT will be auctioned as a 1:1 redeemable for the physical collectible.
- The signed production K8IROS sneaker NFTs will be sold as a raffle with the owners entered into a chance to win one of the signed shoes.
- All proceeds from the drop will be donated to the Dinwiddie Family Foundation.
“This NFT drop has been in the works for a while, so I’m really excited to see it come to fruition. This can change the game for brands, athletes, and influencers by paving the way for how NFTs can be verifiably linked to actual physical collectibles. This entirely new way of bringing physical collectibles into the digital universe, as mediated by SUKU and Hedera, sets us up to redefine the creator economy as we know it. With all profits going to my foundation, I hope this helps level the playing field for kids and allows them to reach their full potential.”
– Spencer Dinwiddie, Co-Founder of Calaxy and Founder of K8IROS
SUKU + K8IROS
The launch of SUKU INFINITE physical tags and NFTs represent a step towards combating the $450 billion-dollar counterfeit sneaker market, using immutably logged IDs that are made traceable on the Hedera Hashgraph distributed ledger.
Using Hedera’s advanced technologies, SUKU provides a safeguard for suppliers and retailers against fraud and theft, while also ensuring provenance for entrepreneurs, artists, and other creators looking to market their physical goods using NFTs.
“Spencer Dinwiddie is using his platform as an athlete and futurist to spread awareness on the true potential of NFTs, and we’re incredibly excited to be partnering with him on his K8IROS crypto sneaker NFT drop. By leveraging SUKU’s carbon-negative INFINITE Marketplace, Spencer is showing the world how brands and influencers can bring physical collectibles and merchandise to the digital realm while helping the planet.”
– Yonathan Lapchik, CEO of SUKU
Through its partnership with Avery Dennison, SUKU leverages its Smartrac NFC tags to allow for the easy tracking of products through the application of long-range, dual-frequency transponders for product identification and management.
Avery Dennison’s tags are durable, discreet, and tamper-proof. If someone were to try to remove a tag from a product, the tag’s circuitry would break, ensuring that tagged items are always able to be authenticated through the linked digital NFT. Additionally, all NFT mints on INFINITE are carbon-negative, supporting climate-certified projects that reduce carbon emissions in the fight against global warming.
All profits from the K8IROS sale will go to the Dinwiddie Family Foundation to provide programming for disadvantaged youth. The foundation aims to cultivate the next generation of diverse leaders through the Dinwiddie Scholars program, which provides educational scholarships in partnership with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), America’s largest and most effective minority education organization.