Vertical skateboarding pioneer and entrepreneur Tony Hawk is making a move to the metaverse. The professional skateboard star announces that he and The Sandbox are partnering together to build a virtual skatepark.
Together with The Sandbox, Tony Hawk also brings in NFT platform Autograph to turn the metaverse skatepark dream into reality. Autograph is an NFT platform co-founded by another sporting star, Tom Brady. The platform focuses on creating and releasing NFT collections around sports legends. While it definitely is a new twist, this is not the first time that Tony Hawk has gamified his brand. The skateboard star actually has his own game franchise, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series which first launched back in 1999.
Coming soon to The Sandbox: alongside @Autograph, I’m helping to create the biggest skatepark in the #metaverse. Stay tuned for updates. pic.twitter.com/0R2ODsR4qt
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) July 13, 2022
The skateboarding star is commonly credited as one of the pioneers of vertical skateboarding. Throughout his career he helped campaign for skateboarding to be treated as a sport. He also won multiple medals in the then popular X-Games. Together with skateboarding, he also is an entrepreneur and media star and has set up amusement park rides, appeared in tv and film, and a skateboarding-focused YouTube channel.
With this partnership, Tony Hawk adds to the growing list of stars and brands that are creating experiences on The Sandbox’ virtual world. The metaverse platform currently has stars like Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg pushing their NFT experiences on the platform. Multimedia brands like the Warner Music Group and traditional video game names like Ubisoft is on The Sandbox as well.
“I have been a fan of new technology all of my life”, says Tony Hawk. ” from the first videogames and home computers with CGI capabilities — so I am fascinated by the metaverse, and excited to bring our culture into the virtual landscape of The Sandbox,”
One of the highlights of Tony Hawk’s career is the completion of the 900 trick at the 1999 X-Games. The trick involves doing “two-and-a-half turns about their longitudinal axis”, or two-and-a-half summersaults while in mid-air on a skateboard.