‘If It Pops in a Game, It'll Be Manufactured in Reality’: Aglet’s Virtual Sneaker Game Could Soon Make Sneakers from Players’ Designs

Breanna De Vera

Breanna de Vera is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is currently a senior at the University of Southern California, studying journalism and English literature. She previously reported for the campus publications The Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media.

‘If It Pops in a Game, It'll Be Manufactured in Reality’: Aglet’s Virtual Sneaker Game Could Soon Make Sneakers from Players’ Designs

The virtual video game app for sneakerheads is about to get real.

The Los Angeles-based iPhone app Aglet, which has players search for virtual shoes and gain in-game currency called Aglets by walking, is about to cross over into the real world with the release next year of a sneaker.


Since its founding late last year, Aglet users have walked 8.4 billion steps, or over four million miles. They can use the Aglets they earn to buy virtual shoes in the game.

"Our best selling sneaker in the game is our own," said Ryan Mullins, the CEO and founder of Onlife, the company that produced Aglet.

Aglet app

The Aglet One is a classic sneaker similar to Adidas' iconic Stan Smiths tennis shoe. Mullins said he's secured a deal with an undisclosed manufacturer to produce it and expects to have it on the market next year.

"It sounds cheesy to say this, but [Aglet] is sort of like my life's work," said Mullins, a longtime sneakerhead and former director of future trends at Adidas. "All my interests coming together — whether it's gaming, fashion — in particular, sneakers and streetwear — and software development."

Mullins is the founder of two other companies, readfy, a subscription-based virtual library, and oolipo, a multimedia publishing platform.

Next year, the app will also roll out more narrative additions to game play, including a storyline for players to follow and a data-location feature that reads weather in a players' locations and gamifies it by affecting wear on their virtual shoes. But Mullin's end goal is to enable players to eventually become sneaker designers. He eventually wants to manufacture player-designed shoes.

"We think that the next Nike, the next Adidas, the next Virgil Abloh or Coco Chanel is probably going to be a 15-year-old, 16-year-old kid who's designing virtually a bunch of their own brands" said Mullins. "And if it pops in a game, then it'll be manufactured in reality."

Aglet app

In November, Aglet hosted a "creator month," and opened a design contest to the community. According to Mullins, there were over 1,000 submissions, and the 10 original designs chosen to appear in the game were a hit, some selling out in its virtual store. The app doesn't yet have a design function for players, but Mullins hopes that players will be able to create their own virtual kicks and eventually see them manufactured in real life.

The pandemic has made it harder for location-based apps to thrive. Games like Pokémon Go rely on users being able to get out of their homes and explore. Several states in the U.S. were under lockdown or stay-at-home orders when the app launched in late April, but Aglet's user base is incredibly dedicated and continuously growing, according to Mullins. The game provides players an opportunity to make whatever outdoor walking time they had a little more fun.

Onlife announced the close of a $4.5 million seed round led by Sapphire Sport last week. Other investors include Lakestar Ventures and Forecast Ventures, Miami Heat forward Andre Iguodala, 6D.ai chief executive Matt Miesnieks, Oculus VR co-founder Nate Mitchell and angel investor Charlie Songhurst.

"There's very few investors that I've talked to that immediately got what we were doing, and did not view this as silly, like just a mobile game or something like that. And that is what it currently is, right?" said Mullins. "But to then be able to extrapolate outward, and really be with me on where that vision is going... That it's a new form of consumption, it's a new form of commerce that mixes virtual and physical goods."


Mullins said his vision was difficult to explain to some investors, who didn't get why he wanted to move users from a virtual to a physical experience. He said he was drawn to sport-tech fund Sapphire Sport, Lakestar Ventures and the round's angel investors because they quickly understood his idea.

"This is where consumption is increasingly moving, and most importantly where culture is being created and monetized," said Sapphire Sport co-founder and Managing Director Michael Spirito in a statement. "And Aglet's is a vision we are excited to back and help build."

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

LA-Based Apex Is Tapping Into the Small Satellite Market by Making Buses for Spacecraft

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

​Ian Cinnamon
Ian Cinnamon

On this episode of Office Hours, Apex founder and CEO Ian Cinnamon discusses the importance of investing in space exploration and shares his thoughts on the evolving space ecosystem in Los Angeles.


Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la

This Week in ‘Raises’: Measurabl Snags $93M, Selva Ventures Grabs $34M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local data management platform company lands fresh funding to help commercial real estate owners reduce carbon footprint, while one Los Angeles-based venture firm closes its second fund to accelerate the growth of emerging companies across health, wellness, beauty and personal care.

***

Read moreShow less

McKinsey & Company Launches InLA Accelerator To Help Underrepresented Founders Tackle Startup Challenges

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

McKinsey & Company Launches InLA Accelerator To Help Underrepresented Founders Tackle Startup Challenges
InLA

In 2022, female founders saw a 28% decline in overall U.S. funding, while Black-led startups saw a 38% decline in total capital received. In an effort to increase funding for minority-led startups, global venture firm McKinsey & Company is launching InLA, an accelerator program for underrepresented founders.

“This effort is something that the firm has been really excited about for a long time,” Engagement Manager Elkhyn Rivas Rodriguez said. “There's obviously a meaningful and growing startup community out here and just from a diversity standpoint, LA is incredibly diverse and multi-ethnic and multicultural. So we think that there will be a really great pool of potential companies to partner with.”

Read moreShow less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending