Nike is looking to enter the metaverse with new hires

NME

It looks as though Nike is preparing to enter the metaverse, as the fashion giant is looking to hire a director of metaverse engineering.

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According to the job description, Nike’s Technology Innovation Office (TIO) will “unleash the power of technology, innovation, and talent to deliver ground-breaking technology innovation products and services.”

The director of metaverse engineering will “lead the development of rapid end-to-end proof of concepts, prototypes, and production of metaverse software and device solutions…for use within Nike, as part of existing Nike products, and for new lines of business.”

The candidate will need to be familiar “with a broad range of metaverse technologies, from web3 to spatial web” alongside “knowledge of blockchain ecosystems, technologies and culture including DLTs, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, smart contracts, dApps, DAOs, wallets, and more.”

In fact, Nike has posted 5 metaverse related jobs in the last 2 weeks pic.twitter.com/uHazhZHPLM

— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) January 27, 2022

The company is also looking to fill four other metaverse-related roles, including a senior 3D game designer / metaverse engineer with “expertise in Unreal Engine or Unity.” The candidate will also need experience in “full lifecycle game development” as well as a history of “working on technology innovation projects with high degrees of ambiguity”

Nike is also looking for an expert innovation program manager specialising in Blockchain, a metaverse principal innovation engineer as well as a virtual material designer as the company looks to break into the virtual space.

Earlier this year, the inventor of the PlayStation console, Ken Kutaragi, shared his opinions on the metaverse, saying he doesn’t see the point of it.

“Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about making quasi-real in the virtual world, and I can’t see the point of doing it,” he said.

It follows on from comments late last year from Xbox head Phil Spencer, who wants any metaverse to be fan-orientated.

“I think it’s easy for a lot of tech companies to describe why the metaverse might be better for their company,” he said. “But we’ve just learned that if we put the player at the centre, to use my gaming vocabulary again, and try to build an ecosystem that works around their needs and creator needs, that the platform dynamic will take off.”

It follows on from an industry-wide report that suggests developers aren’t interested in NFTs or cryptocurrency.

2,700 game developers were surveyed ahead of the 2022 Game Developers Conference, with a solid third thinking the metaverse will never deliver on its promises.

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