Adidas NFTs
In partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club, GMoney, and Punks Comics, the athletic wear brand releases 30,000 NFTs. The entirety of the collection was minted within a few hours on Friday, each at the cost of 0.2 ETH. A batch of 20,000 was reserved in early access for people who already owned NFTs of popular projects such as Pixel Vault and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs. After launching at 1:30 PM ET, complications forced them to pause the minting and resume it three hours later. Many people lost gas fees when attempting to mint in the initial period, of which Adidas has promised to reimburse all who were affected. The collection is now available on OpenSea for secondary market trading.
Rivian EV plant
The newly public electric car company took another giant leap this last week when they announced they would be building a second manufacturing plant to support scaling its operations. The factory is set to be built in Georgia, just an hour or so outside of Atlanta, with an estimated throughput of 400,000 vehicles per year once it is at total capacity. Along with the original Normal, Illinois factory, this new facility will assemble the R1T pick-up truck and the R1S SUV, the first models of their kind for Rivian. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be seeing plenty more of these innovative vehicles in the coming 4–5 years.
Concepts x Reebok “Draft Class”
Professional basketball has been long intertwined with sneaker culture, especially seeing how star athletes like Michael Jordan have practically defined the sector entirely. In an attempt to pay homage to some of the greats of the NBA, the Reebok x Concepts question will honor the 1996 draft class. Regarded as one of the most impressive draft classes in history, players included Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and more. This 25th-anniversary celebratory shoe is slated to release sometime in 2022, likely around or on the night of the NBA Draft lottery.
Valor domination
With plenty of Yeezy releases to go around during December, Yeezy Supply has been a high-priority target of many sneaker botters. Each public bot is in high contention with others as they compete to check out as many pairs for their users as possible. The undisputed winner this month has been ValorAIO. The bot boasted 3,500 checkouts on the 450 slate drop, 6,200 checkouts on the foam runner drop, 22,000 checkouts on the slides drop, and an impressive 21,500 checkouts on the beluga reflective drop. With such a high level of consistency, this bot has made a name for itself and continues to deliver for its user base. Trickle AIO came in second with a similarly outstanding 20,100 checkouts.
Russia crypto ban
On December 16th, the Russian central bank announced an intention to ban all cryptocurrency investments in Russia. The main reasoning behind the proposed legislation is the increased risk of financial instability caused by the increasing number of crypto transactions and adoption. While in 2020, Russia gave cryptocurrencies legal status in the country, they were still banned as a means of payment. A potential ban would only prevent new crypto sales, and all previous purchases would be unaffected. It is unclear what effects such a ban would have on crypto prices and global cryptocurrency adoption.
Spider-Man box office bonanza
After a very long wait, the third installment in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man series has finally arrived. Due to the pandemic, box office sales have been relatively lackluster for the past year and a half. The Venmo: Let There Be Carnage film held the previous record for the biggest domestic opening weekend after COVID had started at $90 million. The Spider-Man No Way Home film exceeded expectations by generating a whopping $253 million in opening weekend sales across 4,336 theaters. The film has racked up $587.2 million globally, marking it the third-largest worldwide opening weekend, just behind Avengers Endgame and Avenger Infinity War. If you haven’t seen the film yet, we urge you to go soon so you can avoid any spoilers!
This week we have got more Yeezys in store, including the 700 MNVN metallic and the 350 V2 MX Rock. Also keep an eye out for some console restocks!
