Michael Jordan and Son Will Soon Launch a New NFT Marketplace for GenZ

Michael Jordan and son Jeffrey Jordan have confirmed they will launch a new NFT marketplace. But in world that seems to welcome a new marketplace every other hour, how do the pair plan on differentiating themselves from the masses?

Well, it’s simple really. The entertainment and tech venture, HEIR Inc, will specifically targt GenZ audiences. Billed as a ‘next-generation holding company’, the focus is on building culturally-inspired brands linked to entertainment and tech. Understood? Good, now let’s look at the details.

The company’s first product is HEIR, a personalised community web 3.0 platform. This launch will allow athletes and their fans to connect. Evidently someone thinks the idea has legs because a seed funding round just secured $10million for the project. This was led by Thrive Capital, with investors including Solana Ventures, tech entrepreneur and investor Alexis Ohanian, New York Knicks executive vice president and senior basketball adviser William Wesley. Not to mention Chicago Bulls guard, Lonzo Ball.

When Will Michael Jordan and Son Launch HEIR?

Suffice to say, this is the big question. At the time of writing, HEIR is pegged to launch “in 2022”, but information is thin on the ground in terms of when we can expect to see the platform next year. We can confirm that an HEIR token, built on Solana, forms part of the plan. Fans can use these to buy one-off digital assets, and join “the huddle” to interact with their idols.

“Fan loyalty is increasingly moving toward love for individual players rather than teams,” said Gaurav Ahuja, partner at Thrive Capital. “There’s an opportunity now to develop an ecosystem that enables fans to feel like insiders with the athletes they love. HEIR’s ‘huddle’ provides a first-of-its-kind experience to be closer to athletes, becoming active co-owners and co-creators in the platform. HEIR represents the future of consumer entertainment experiences, built with Web3 at its core.”

More Sports NFTs

Anyone who has been keeping an eye on NFTEvening pages this year will know this is just one example in a growing number of sports-related NFT projects and startups. Of course, given who is behind it we’re sure it’s going to make a bigger impact than some, but nevertheless activity in this space has been intense, to say the least.

Just the other day, we reported on how Amazon’s first NFT investment has gone into the sports platform, Dibbs. Before that, the ESL Immutable X e-sports collectibles caught our attention. And, as Dapper Labs reported recently, pro sports leagues are starting to come round to the idea of NFTs as an extension of traditional merch. Simply put, powerhouses of the sporting world are no longer looking at tokens as a passing fad, but instread technology with huge potential. We can’t help but say ‘we told you so’.