Reebok, Futureverse unveil AI experience on Instagram to create personalized digital sneakers

Reebok wants consumers to create truly personalized digital sneakers, using artificial intelligence to imprint photo memories on shoes — from soul to sole.

The new feature starts on Instagram where users send @ReebokImpact a direct message with a photo. Technology partner Futureverse then applies generative AI to render the new Reeboks in less than a minute, remixing the image with representative color splashes and picture details on one of three shoe styles. Users then enter a digital editor to further design and tweak the creation.

Upon completion, the digital sneaker can be posted to Instagram for free or minted at a price of $7.99 to create an asset that can be used to personalize an avatar on Fortnite, Roblox and other virtual experiences.
“Reebok had pitched us that their whole approach to their brand is go get your shoes dirty and live in them,” Futureverse co-founder and chief strategy officer Shara Senderoff said. “If moments in your life where you get your shoes dirty are usually moments that impact your soul, where do you put those memories and those moments? And the answer is Instagram.”

Reebok Impact is the first activation in a longer-term partnership between Reebok and Futureverse, which previously has built products for FIFA (a game called AI League), Muhammad Ali and others. Futureverse leverages Web3 and blockchain but deliberately doesn’t advertise the underlying technology. The goal was a seamless experience within Instagram.

Creating a digital product with wide utility is a core philosophy at Futureverse.

“We're very deeply in AI and metaverse infrastructure, and we believe that the interoperability of assets is the most critical part of what the metaverse is,” Senderoff said. “We truly believe it's just an extension of the internet, where the data layer can speak to the things it needs to speak to.

“The real world is interoperable; the internet just isn’t,” she continued. “That's what we believe the metaverse is by way of definition. And so Futureverse, as a technology company, we're building so many of the layers that will make these things possible, and then we're putting front ends on some of these pieces of technology so that a user has no idea that they're in this new frontier tech that has shown up before in really clunky ways.”

Reebok CEO Todd Krinsky described this launch as “an important milestone in our commitment to innovation and technology,” he said in a statement, with an eye toward working with Futureverse and “revolutionizing the digital fashion landscape and providing our customers with a unique and immersive experience.”

With Reebok Impact, users can choose the Pump, Classic, or Club C models. (Senderoff said she first approached Reebok because of the Pump, wanting to explore how to convert the mechanic of pumping the shoe into a boost of some kind in the metaverse; that started the conversation that eventually led to the current product.)

A core objective of the collaboration between Reebok and Futureverse is to bridge the gap between physical and digital worlds. With this tool, consumers have the opportunity to receive a discount on real-life Reebok sneakers. More ambitious crossovers are planned for the future.

“In this space — the initial start of the digital collectibles world and the technology that makes it possible — we’ve seen a lot of selling and throwing things at people,” Senderoff said, “and we haven't created the two-way street yet of how someone can truly engage and make it their own.”