Adidas ITM event Review in Berlin: Big Disappointment?

Community building is an essential aspect of any society, especially online ones. They basically help foster a sense of belonging and interconnectedness among individuals. Real-life events serve as crucial platforms for building such communities, allowing people to come together, share experiences, and develop lasting relationships. When these events are organized by large companies, they carry even greater significance, as they can set the tone for other projects to follow. However, not all events are successful, as demonstrated by the failed Adidas event in Berlin that took place on the 25th of March 2023. What happened at the Adidas Berlin event? Here’s a quick recap of everything that went wrong.

What is Adidas ALTS?

Adidas is officially diving (or trying to dive at least) into web3 through ALTS. In fact, phase 1 and phase 2 already passed with no added value. Today, phase 3 was in place, and NFT holders needed to burn their previous P1 and P2 NFTs as they do not hold any value anymore. The company claims that in phase 3, over the next few months, more benefits for holders should be introduced.

How to Buy Adidas ALTS?

To obtain ALTS by Adidas in Phase 3, you can solely do so through the official website, collect.adidas.com. After connecting your wallet, you will need to burn your Phase 1 and/or Phase 2 NFTs and mint ALTS by Adidas.

Adidas Berlin Event: What Went Wrong?

Well, mostly everything. It turned out that Phase 3 is here and there is no apparent roadmap for anything planned yet. Investors were left in shock when they attended the Adidas Berlin event to see how mismanaged it was. If the event was for free, we would understand low-budget features. But the Adidas event in Berlin was reserved only to holders of the NFTs, who paid thousands of dollars both on primary markets and even on secondary markets. You would want to treat them as investors, no? Let’s go through each disaster, one point at a time:

1- The Location

More than 150 NFT holders (investors) were shocked to find out that the IRL event of Adidas is taking place in a regular Adidas shop in Berlin. This is where you’d normally go shopping for new shoes or t-shirts. There were too many people in such a small little place, and many felt uncomfortable standing inside. If you’re going to announce the launch of a significant milestone in a brand-new ecosystem, you better plan ahead and cater to your audience.

In fact, there was only 1 bathroom for both genders, and attendees had to wait for more than 30 mins just to use it.

2- The Food

Very few people go to events thinking only about food. However, it is important to keep your audience engaged and happy. In fact, it is better not to put anything at all rather than to put a poorly maintained table. The worst part, the table only had a small vegetarian buffet. Why even bother?

Most attendees left afterwards for McDonald’s to eat and made jokes about how the food buffet was bad. Well, when your location is a cramp, the food is expected to be bad.

3- The Agenda

Here comes the most important part of an event: the Agenda, as in what should people expect. Well, this part was still a mystery till today. People flew from all over Europe to attend and understand the roadmap and the vision of Adidas entering Web3. On the other hand, they left even more confused about what was next.

No recap about what the project is about, no roadmap shared, no AMA sessions, and no clear vision of the project phases. Apparently, phase 3 is the last one and there will not be any phase 4 anymore. Maybe the project is about to be killed?

The highlight of the event was the trailer video announcing phase 3 that is already shared on the official website. However, this was a bit embarrassing. They basically screened this 33-second clip on a small TV screen that was placed right in front of the display of the shoes…like, wth?

4- The Merch…or the lack of it

When investors buy NFTs, they expect a certain return, be it from a financial perspective or even as a sort of privilege. In the Adidas event in Berlin, however, there were non. No discounts for the attendees (since they’re in the store already), and no free merch that matched the NFTs they hold. Invitees had to pay extra to buy low-quality hoodies. Even the bags were being sold for 2 euros! Again, those are investors who flew across Europe, paid thousands of dollars for the NFTs, booked hotels, took time off their busy schedule, reached a simple store, and had to buy a 2-euro bag to carry their stuff.

5- Technical Difficulties

Attendees were given the opportunity to purchase a special NFT by German artist RAWS. Those digital collectibles were supposed to be unique, and are in collaboration with Adidas. However, when attendees were trying to purchase this NFT, most could not and were faced with technical difficulties and could not mint for more than 1 hour. Everyone was waiting for hours, and when their turn came to mint, the error hit them and no one was able to help.

Again, no free merch, no discounts, and when attendees tried to purchase something it fails. It seems like nothing was pre-planned or tested.

6- No Cooperation with other Crypto Brands

It is well known that Yuga Labs and the Punk team are partnering with big brands such as Adidas to integrate their NFTs and personas. However, there was no presence from any one of the mentioned projects. When asked about it, no one was able to correctly articulate their minds “ummm, we don’t know, they’re maybe in the States now, ermm our team is new…”

Conclusion

Investors paid thousands of dollars to reach the Adidas store in Berlin and watch a 33-second trailer on a small screen announcing phase 3. That’s the entire event in a nutshell. The disappointed crowd gathered and went afterwards to eat and drink around the city, and their gathering apparently was much better as people could eat properly, drink and network with each other.

Maybe the only thing that was accurate throughout the entire event was the Adidas logo “tilting and falling”, representing the current state of their web3 experience.