RTFKT x Takashi Murakami

RTFKT, pronounced "artifact", was founded in 2020 by Benoit Pagotto, Chris Le and Steven Vasilev. The studio used game engines, NFTs and augmented reality to make virtual sneakers and collectibles, and held "forging" events where holders could claim physical versions. In early 2021 a sneaker drop with the artist FEWOCiOUS sold out in seven minutes, and that May the company closed a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

In late 2021 RTFKT released CloneX, 20,000 3D avatars made with Takashi Murakami, who had withdrawn his own first NFTs that April. RTFKT invited him in and made the avatars. Murakami's style marks the Murakami Drip traits, worn by about 15% of the clones, and a Murakami DNA type. His studio Kaikai Kiki gave Murakami Drip holders first access to its own Murakami.Flowers in 2022, and that May Gagosian showed CloneX avatars as full-scale sculptures in a Murakami exhibition in New York.

Nike bought RTFKT in December 2021. CloneX holders received MNLTH boxes in February 2022, which opened in April to reveal the RTFKT x Nike Dunk Genesis CRYPTOKICKS, digital sneakers restyled with skin vials. The AR Genesis Hoodie, a physical hoodie tied to its NFT by an NFC chip, followed that July, and in October 2023 holders forged physical pairs of the sneakers.

In December 2024 RTFKT said it would wind down by the end of January 2025. In April 2025 a hosting problem blacked out the CloneX art, and the CloneX and Animus media were then moved to Arweave, a permanent storage network. That same month holders filed a proposed class action against Nike. Nike sold RTFKT to an undisclosed buyer on 17 December 2025.