Nike could just publish a public key in an SEC filing and you could use that to verify that you're actually talking to the company. That would be exactly as good and much simpler.
Whoever stole the item can try to sell it, but given they don’t own the wallet that the token lives in - everyone will know it’s a stolen good. Another benefit of NFT for psychical goods.
Here is Nikes patent for this use case: https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=10505726
So what happens to the shoes I want to sell if I lose my private key or it is stolen (probably more likely than someone stealing the physical shoes)?
Do I simply lose the right to sell? Or do I go to jail for not being able to prove that I own them? What if the person I’m selling the shoes to believes me or doesn’t care?
What is the real cost of stolen or fraudulent goods to the shoe market in percentage terms? Does it justify all of these extra transaction costs being layered on the honest shoe traders?
Are there probably good reasons that the idiom, “possession is 9/10ths of the law” is so common?
And Shoes are the most counterfeited product in the world. 2 I don’t have specific shoes figures, but here is an article about a $400 million fake shoe bust customs made 3.
Yes, counterfeiting is a major problem worthwhile of extra transaction costs.
In the art business, confirming the legitimacy of a painting is a $1b per year market.
What happens when you lose your key? Price would drop in value, I imagine. Similar to if you accidentally dirtied your shoes, both requires being careful and aren’t mistake proof. However, I’ll let people smarter than me figure this out.
1 https://www.france24.com/en/20190318-counterfeit-pirated-goo...
2. https://www.redpoints.com/blog/fake-shoes/
3 https://qz.com/1778276/how-counterfeit-nikes-get-into-the-us...