Wikipedia:Aglet App

Aglet is a smartphone application featuring a variety of sneaker-focused, location-based spatial commerce experiences for Gen-Z gamers. Aglet is owned and operated by parent company onlife Inc., a next-generation experience platform based in Los Angeles, California and Melbourne, Australia. Developed by onlife co-founders — CEO Ryan David Mullins and Owen Batt — Aglet is a sneaker and apparel collection game powered by the player’s exploration of the physical world. Aglet was released in live beta in April 2020. onlife has raised more than $24 million in funding, led by Galaxy Interactive, Amazon’s Alexa Fund, and Sapphire Sport.

onlife Inc.
onlife Inc., Aglet’s parent company, was co-founded in 2019 by CEO Ryan David Mullins, former Director of Future Trends at Adidas, and Owen Batt, a longtime startup technologist. onlife is described as a next-generation experience platform with the purpose of inspiring the world to play life; the company operates on the idea that human beings don’t live their lives online and offline but rather experience an augmented, digitally-enhanced version of reality. onlife seeks to change the way people interact with brands in the virtual and physical world and harmonize a relationship between retail and ecommerce through their products.

Aglet
Starting with a smartphone app akin to Pokémon Go for sneakers, Aglet was created by the onlife team in order to reimagine the commerce experience by fusing physical and virtual worlds with location-based gameplay. Aglet was launched for iOS on April 12, 2020. Aglet later launched on Android devices on January 21, 2022.

The first project from the onlife team, Aglet’s core gameplay centers on allowing sneakerheads and gamers alike to convert their physical steps into Aglet, the app’s in-game currency. By walking or running around the physical world and exploring the game’s augmented reality map, players can use the Aglet they earn to purchase virtual sneakers, which can then be worn or displayed on the in-app Shelf.

After establishing the core gameplay features of Aglet and partnering with major real world brands, Aglet debuted its first NFT-based features in early 2022. As Aglet’s focus was already on collecting, buying, trading, and selling digital assets, Web3 based features including NFTs were a logical next step and long-term goal of the project since inception. These in-app features were followed in May 2022 by the launch of the Aglet One, a physical sneaker paired with a corresponding NFT upon purchase.

In early May 2022, Aglet announced that it had surpassed 1,000,000 active users. In late July 2022, only two months after reaching its 1,000,000 active user milestone, Aglet announced it had surpassed 3,500,000 monthly active users. During that period of time, Aglet also spent time as the Number One mobile app in Japan and Ukraine, with massive increases in in-app purchases and heightened demand for both physical and digital collectible drops.

Funding
In December 2020, onlife Inc. announced that $4.5 million in seed funding had been raised for Aglet’s development, in a round led by Sapphire Sport with participation from previous investor Lakestar Ventures and angel investors Matt Miesnieks, Nate Mitchell, and Greg Castle.

In December 2021, a $15 million Series A funding round was completed, bringing total funding for Aglet to $24 million. The Series A round was led by Galaxy Interactive and Amazon’s Alexa Fund, with additional investors including JDS Media and GOAL Ventures. The company said this funding would be used to bolster Aglet’s development, including expanding headcount in product and technology.

Gameplay
Aglet’s primary gameplay mechanics center on converting a player’s physical steps into Aglet, the game’s in-app currency, which is earned while walking or running around the physical world that corresponds to a virtual game map. Aglet is then used to buy and collect digital sneakers.

As sneakers are collected, they can be worn to provide the wearer with different attributes as they explore the world, such as increasing the amount of Aglet currency earned per step. When a player chooses to wear a sneaker in-game, that sneaker deteriorates over time as the player takes steps. Players can then check in to “repair” or “deadstock” stations in their area in order to repair their sneakers and return them to looking new. When a sneaker is not actively being worn, the owner can display favorites from their collection on their Shelf.

Players can also complete location-based challenges, similar to Pokémon Go, by walking or running through their real-life surroundings. While exploring, players can also find Treasure Stashes containing Aglet, Gold Aglet (a premium in-game currency that can also be purchased for real money), and both virtual and physical sneakers. Players can also earn Aglet by referring friends.

Aglet NFTs
On May 5, 2022, Aglet announced that it would add NFTs into the game on May 14, 2022. Aglet partnered with ImmutableX, a layer 2 ethereum-based protocol for trading Ethereum NFTs, as the official platform to host its NFTs. The initial batch of Aglet NFTs was designed by Aglet Head Illustrator Dan Freebairn, with additional artwork created by the Aglet illustrations team and guest designers.

Aglet NFTs are purchasable in the Aglet Shop using in-game currencies, alongside the game’s other sneaker assets.

In late May 2022, Aglet launched its first signature sneaker alongside a matching NFT, the Aglet One ‘OG IRL’ NFT. Players who purchased the real-life sneakers received a specially minted NFT to mark the release. Both the sneakers and tokens were strictly limited for the initial run.

Metacurious: Mapping the Metaverse
Metacurious: Mapping the Metaverse is a series of short films produced by Aglet featuring CEO and co-founder Ryan David Mullins. In these videos, Mullins discusses key topics and questions related to the metaverse, including how Aglet operates in the space.

Metacurious Season 1 premiered on December 23, 2021 and included 12 total episodes airing on YouTube through January 13, 2022. Metacurious Season 2 premiered on June 10, 2022, with new episodes released on a weekly basis.