Skip to main content
BoF Logo

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Fashion’s Innovation Dilemma

Nike’s shuttering of RTFKT, the virtual sneaker brand it acquired in 2021, highlights a perennial problem for companies that want to remain innovation leaders: Rush in and potentially make a costly mistake, or hang back and risk being late.
A collage image shows six futuristic-looking, digital Nike Dunks.
Variations of RTFKT's virtual Nike Dunk sneaker. (RTFKT)

Nike-owned RTFKT became web3′s latest casualty this week, when the virtual sneaker and fashion brand announced it would cease operations by the end of January.

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Technology
Analysis and advice on how technology is disrupting fashion and creating new opportunities.
view more
Latest News & Analysis
Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

The Industry That Eats Its Young

Small fashion labels have always been shortchanged by their wholesale partners. A wave of high-profile bankruptcies has turned a structural injustice into an existential crisis. There is a better way to do business, writes Imran Amed.


The Zara-Fication of John Galliano

Fashion’s enfant terrible is trading exclusivity for the mass market. Is it the ultimate fashion coup, or the final surrender of prestige?


The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.


VIEW MORE
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON