Nike has sold the “digital renaissance powered by creative chaos” known as Rtfkt (pronounced “artifact”) to an undisclosed buyer on undisclosed terms, The Oregonian reports. According to a statement made to the paper, Nike closed the NFT mint’s sale last month, on Dec. 16, and is thereby “launching a new chapter for the company and its community.”
However, the sale will apparently not mark the end of the company’s phygital ventures. “Nike,” the statement reads, “continues to invest in delivering innovative products and experiences across physical, digital and virtual environments.” In November 2022, for instance, Nike established a platform and Web 3 marketplace, called .Swoosh, for all of its “interactive digital objects” – or, as its blog on Medium says, for “all things gaming, fandom and internet culture.” .Swoosh continues to operate. Rtfkt’s connection with it is unclear, most of its NFTs seeming to have sold on Nike.com.
Nike acquired Rtfkt in December 2021, in the heyday of the metaverse. At Nike’s helm back then was President and CEO John Donahoe, who was seeking to shift the company away from wholesale and toward DTC retail. He had embraced the Consumer Direct Offense (CDO) of his predecessor, Chairman, President and CEO Mark Parker, and was carrying it forward. Announced in 2017, the CDO split the business into “four geographies” (North America, EMEA, China, APLA) and continued a shift “toward direct, faster and closer to market business models.” Nike’s financial reports since 2017 have put DTC sales (Nike-owned stores + digital channels) under the rubric “Nike Direct.”
| Nike Direct revenues | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| FY | $ billion | YoY change | Percentage of Nike Brand sales |
| 2025 | 18.8 | -12.6% | 42% |
| 2024 | 21.5 | 0.9% | 44% |
| 2023 | 21.3 | 13.9% | 44% |
| 2022 | 18.7 | 14.0% | 42% |
| 2021 | 16.4 | 32.3% | 39% |
| 2020 | 12.4 | 5.1% | 35% |
| 2019 | 11.8 | 13.5% | 32% |
| 2018 | 10.4 | 14.3% | 30% |
| 2017 | 9.1 | – | 28% |
| Source: Nike Inc. annual reports | |||
Rtfkt’s acquisition was for Donahoe “another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation […] at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture.” The terms of this deal too went undisclosed.
Nike shut down Rtfkt (or, as Rtfkt puts things, made it “what is was always meant to be – an Artifact of cultural revolution”) a year ago, in December 2024.
— RTFKT (@RTFKT) December 2, 2024
A few months later, in April 2025, JagDeep Cheema, of Australia, filed a potential class-action lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York alleging that Nike’s shuttering of Rtfkt amounts to a “rug pull.”
A rug-pull occurs, as the filing reads, “when promoters abruptly abandon a project after raising assets, leaving investors holding the bag.” In other words, the suit argues that the NFTs are securities – a matter we’ve explored in the past. Cheema is seeking damages in excess of $5 million.
