Benoît Pagotto, co-founder of Nike-acquired RTFKT, has died

RTFKT co-founder Benoît Pagotto has died at the age of 41, according to public posts from associates. 

The news was first reported by Philippe Rodriguez in a LinkedIn post, who called Pagotto a "client and friend" and noted that Pagotto's death was "sudden." Rodriguez is a founding partner at Avolta Partners, which advised RTFKT on its sale to Nike in Dec. 2021. 

"He will remain the entrepreneur, super creative, discreet and humble. Passionate but always reasonable, he inspired as much as he sought inspiration from others," an English translation of his French-language post reads. 

The news was later confirmed by fellow RTFKT co-founder Steven Vasilev, who posted on X, "The vision, mission and inspiration [Pagotto] gave to the world will live on forever."

Pagotto co-founded Web3 studio RTFKT (pronounced "artifact") in early 2020, alongside Vasilev and co-founder Chris Le. The firm released artistic NFT sneakers, which quickly gained popularity, and led to brand collaborations with sneaker designer Jeff Staple, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, and others.

The Murakami collaboration, the 20,000-piece project Clone X x Takashi Murakami, has the fourth-most total lifetime earnings of any NFT project, after Yuga Labs, Azuki, and VeeFriends, according to DefiLlama data, with nearly $120 million. RTFKT itself makes the list in ninth place, with over $50 million in lifetime earnings. 

Nike announced it would wind down the startup in Dec. 2024. Pagotto stayed on with Nike, as a senior director, brand and partnerships. 

"[H]e was just a unique human being, no one will ever replace him. [T]his dude was literally raising crows out of his apartment windows!" former RTFKT CTO Samuel Cardillo wrote on X, in his own tribute post. 

The Block was unable to immediately reach Nike or representatives for Pagotto for comment.