Argentine Football Association Partners With STEPN to Launch Digital Sneakers

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has partnered with STEPN in a deal that honors the Argentine soccer team. The partnership includes the issuance of Genesis NFT sneakers that will unlock real-life rewards.

Argentine Football Association to Issue Genesis NFT Sneakers

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has partnered with STEPN, a Solana-based move-to-earn project, to issue a series of digital assets to honor the fans and the performance of the Argentine Football Team, one of the most decorated teams in soccer history.

The partnership, which will be in effect for two years, encompasses issuing a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of Genesis sneakers that will be distributed among the fans through raffles. STEPN, which has over 5.7 million registered users worldwide, stated that this would be just the start of this partnership and that many other activities would follow.

Leandro Petersen, AFA’s Commercial and Marketing Director, highlighted the relevance of this deal to expand the digital footprint of the country’s team. He stated:

AFA pathway in the Web3 continues to grow and thanks to STEPN experience AFA will be able to reach millions of users in the web3 space aiming for consolidating the passion and excellence our Team transmits to the next generation of Argentina National Team fans.

These sneakers will also be linked to real-life rewards, including signed jerseys and match tickets, offering engagement paths previously locked for the two parties.

This is not the first digital involvement of the Argentine Football Association. In 2021, the team partnered with fan engagement platform Socios.com to issue its fan token, allowing holders to have a say in several team decisions, following a trend established by other leagues and national teams at the time.

After that, in 2022, the team partnered with crypto exchange Binance, making it the official sponsor of the team in a 5 year deal that would include the issuance of another fan token. Nonetheless, an Argentine judge considered that this partnership could not be made, given that the previous arrangement with Socios.com was already in effect, ordering the parties to desist.

Source