New Balance to use blockchain against counterfeits

Popular shoe brand New Balance will puts its shoes on the blockchain in order to battle the problem of counterfeits. The shoe brand partnered with blockchain startup Cardano. First there will be a pilot program, which will eventually expand to a global solution. This was announced by tech company IOHK over the weekend at the Cardano Summit Bulgaria according to Crypto Briefing.

It's not yet known whether Cardano's ADA token will be part of the program. Cardano didn't mention which products it would place on the blockchain, even though shoes are the most obvious.

Two years ago a Chinese court awarded New Balance 1.5 billion dollars in copyright damages in 2017. This happened because another Chinese company copied their shoes and named them New Boom. New Balance will now use Cardano's blockchain to fight these type of counterfeits.

New Balance has grown a lot in the past five years. The company now boosts 8000 employees worldwide. Last year the fashionable shoe company had more than 4.1 billion dollars in revenue.

Not the first shoes on the blockchain

Even though New Balance's move into blockchain technology is major news, it's not the first. In August a small sneaker company from France announced it will put its products on the Ethereum blockchain. Their first shoe, called Satoshi_One, contains an NFC chip that makes sure you’re dealing with an authentic product. According to Satoshi Studio this is a great way to combat illegal counterfeiting.

Even though Satoshi Studio are the first to have their shoes on the blockchain, they are not the first to investigate the space. Nike has trademarked an online marketplace called Cryptokicks. Which highly suggests that Nike will put a certain line of shoes on the blockchain. However, nothing has been announced just yet.

Authenticity a true power of blockchain

Blockchain technology can be used for many purposes. For example it can create value when we're talking about bitcoin. But more importantly is that it can create transparency and provide a proof of authenticity. Blockchain can track entire supply chains, allowing consumers to see whether a product is truly what it says to be.

Italian wines can already be authenticated using VeChain's services. A Swiss supermarket is tracking its own fruits and vegetables. At the same time the car industry wants to make sure that their minerals are not mined by little kids.