Puma has followed suit of some other leading sportswear brands by purchasing a decentralized URL by registering with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS). The benefits of this will enable Puma to be able to transact in any cryptocurrency or blockchain-based assets which is fundamental for entering into the NFT space.
Other notable companies with .eth domains include American food and beverage giants: Budweiser and Whitecastle. Budweiser bought beer.eth for 30 ETH on OpenSea last year.
Currently, Puma sits at 13th in the most followed Twitter accounts with .eth names after the German sportswear company took to changing its name to Puma.eth on Twitter following the purchase of their decentralized URL. Paris Hilton and former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal are ranked one and two respectively with their parishilton.eth and shaq.eth Twitter accounts.
Puma’s Portfolio
Puma seems set to follow global sports brand competitors, Nike and Adidas, into the world of blockchain and NTFs. Nike has already acquired the brand RTFKT which is a virtual sneakers and collectibles brand while Adidas has launched an NFT collectibles collaboration with none other than Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) as well as PUNKS Comic and GMoney, a top NFT collector.
In total, Puma has 17 NFTs in its portfolio on OpenSea; a marketplace for NFTs. Their portfolio is made up of various feline-inspired NFT collections including Cool Cats, Lazy Lions, Gutter Cat Gang, and CatBlox. Gutter Cat #1110 cost a total of $18,494 at the time of writing which equates to 7.25 ETH which the purchase was transacted in. Puma currently holds approximately $27,500 worth of Etherium in its wallet currently. Other previous transactions include Cool Cat #32 which was bought for 14 ETH which is worth roughly $38,000, a Gutter Cat worth approx $20,000.
Recently Puma has made several ‘The cats out of the bag’ tweets which include videos showing off their latest NFTs so a fair assumption can be made that Puma is in partnership with their NFT collections. Could these feline-based NFTs ever become as popular as other animal-related NFTs such as the BAYC?
Puma entering the Metaverse?
Following the Puma ENS registration, the Twitter name change and the various partnerships with feline-centric NFT collections it looks like Puma could be entering the metaverse space.
This possibility seems even more likely when the company is advertising for the services of both a Digital Culture Manager and a Brand Associate Creative Director on their website.
What’s even more interesting with these roles is that Puma states that candidates must have an “understanding of web3 including NFTs, gaming, metaverse, cryptocurrencies, and DAOs”.
More testament to this claim is that Puma has recently collaborated with a Norwegian-based chess master named Magnus Carlsen who recently stole the spotlight in the metaverse world by purchasing a plot of virtual land in The Sandbox. So it looks like chess will be brought in and played within the metaverse.
Even though the link between Magnus, chess, and Puma is currently unclear, Puma.eth did publish a tweet recently that welcomed Magnus to its family. So, watch this metaverse space.
