Aglet

About Aglet

“Aglet” was a free-to-play augmented reality mobile game developed and published by onlife Inc. Similar to Pokémon Go, it encouraged players to spend time outside in order to earn rewards. Developed by onlife co-founders CEO Ryan David Mullins and Owen Batt, Aglet was released in April 2020.

By walking or running around the physical world, players were rewarded with Aglet that they could then use to collect digital sneakers. As sneakers were collected, they could be equipped to provide the wearer with different attributes and abilities as they explored the world. Actively worn sneakers wore out over time, but players could check in to “repair” or “deadstock” stations in their area to repair their sneakers and return them to looking new. Players could display any sneakers they weren’t actively wearing on their Shelf.

Players could also complete location-based challenges by walking or running through their real-life surroundings. While exploring, players could find Treasure Stashes that contained sneakers and in-game currency.

Aglet debuted its first NFT-based features in early 2022. These in-game features were followed in May 2022 by the launch of the Aglet One, a real-life sneaker paired with a corresponding NFT. Currency earned in-game could be used to purchase Aglet’s NFTs.

My involvement with Aglet

In March 2020 the COVID pandemic caused severe lockdowns in Melbourne, Australia, where I live. I couldn’t continue working as a Real Estate Salesperson any longer, as I wasn’t permitted to leave the local area much at all.

In April 2020 I started working at Onlife, which had at that time just released a mobile phone game called Aglet.

Initially I was employed as a casual, just helping out a friend who was one of the co-founders of the company. We were in business together with the real estate business, and he knew I could do with a few extra dollars given that real estate was essentially shut down due to lockdowns. When I started there were just a handful of us. Things grew very quickly and the role was made full time. I was essentially handling all of the in-game support requests and engaging with the community on our Discord chat server.

One of the “hype” brands was Adidas Yeezy’s. Designed by Ye, these shoes were as much a hit inside the game as they were in real life. One of the more popular Yeezy’s is the “Waverunner”, and so it wasn’t a big surprise that my colleagues gave me the nickname “Daverunner”, a play on my name and the popular Yeezy shoe. 

So in all my engagements with our players, they knew me as Daverunner. So it made sense (to me at least) that I begin agitating for us to release a Daverunner shoe inside the game. To that end, I began dropping subtle hints in team meetings, and also began stirring up our players, getting them onboard with the idea that releasing a Daverunner was a good idea.

The Daverunner went on to become a juggernaut, and with it, I became a meme within the game.

You can read more about the Daverunner here.

A very small history of what we created

In April 2024 Aglet shut down. But during that four year period, a dedicated team of employees created a great deal of content, assisted by our players in part via our Aglet Creators pathway, allowing them to get their own designs into the game as well. Here’s a very small snapshot of the history: