Ultrain, a public-blockchain technology venture, today announced its new partner, Chinese streetwear empire YOHO! – which will be launching an Ultrain-built blockchain sneaker traceability solution for their Unique Fashion Object trading platform.
Sneakers are an essential part of popular culture in China, with consumers driving the growth of a multibillion-dollar industry. YOHO!, a leader in consumer experience that is highly aware of sneaker-lovers interests, launched an online sneaker trading platform called Unique Fashion Object (UFO) in 2018. Ultrain and YOHO! have now collaborated to deliver a blockchain-powered sneaker authenticity solution for the state-of-the-art UFO platform.
Li Zhe, the head of the team behind UFO at YOHO! explained how their internal data analysis indicates a steady growth in demand for sneakers in the Chinese market, which is now accountable for over 20% of YOHO!’s total sales. To YOHO!, establishing UFO and integrating blockchain is essential to “bring customers the premium products that they deserve.”
As a sneaker collector himself, Li points out the key for sneaker trading is provenance. Each sneaker must be authentic if it is to have value on a secondary market, and a trading platform full of counterfeits would be highly detrimental to the industry.
Ultrain and YOHO’s combined solution solves the authenticity issue at scale, making online trading of high-value collectible goods possible on a peer-to-peer market. YOHO! founded an independent appraisal team of eight experienced appraisers to authenticate individual sneakers, which are then labeled with an anti-counterfeiting tag. All sneaker-specific data, such as origin, chain of custody and authenticity is recorded by the tag and registered on Ultra’s public chain. End users can access a sneaker’s authenticity certificate and other details by scanning the tag with their mobile device – an elegant solution.
Grand View Research recently published an estimate of the global sneaker market as worth over 95 billion USD. StockX, a US-based sneaker trading platform, has reported daily trading volumes of over 2 million USD, with 15% of the users being based in China.
Despite high demand, the development of sneaker trading platform in China was postponed due to the lack of a comprehensive appraisal process, stalling the growth of a sizeable trading platform – until UFO! YOHO!, as an established name in the streetwear industry, has access to 20 million registered users that have direct access to UFO on the YOHO app.
Ultrain worked with YOHO! To develop and integrate the blockchain authenticity solution that is now live on the UFO platform. Ultrain has a wide range of available blockchain services and support for commercial clients, supported by an experienced technical team who connects blockchain technology with the mainstream business community via fully supported large-scale industrial applications.
