RadioShack, the once ubiquitous electronics retail chain, that submitted bankruptcy filings in 2015 and 2017, is rebranding itself as a cryptocurrency company with the brand’s new owner counting on the former company’s brand recognition to cut through the volatile and murky cryptocurrency market.
In an attempt to make the RadioShack brand relevant again, Miami-based owner, Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), thinks RadioShack coupled with the emerging cryptocurrency market is the perfect way to propel the brand once again to greatness.
RadioShack was first founded over one hundred years ago in 1921. It peaked in 1999 with stores operating in the United States, Mexico, the UK, Australia and Canada. The brand was also licensed abroad in parts of Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The brand has been passed along over the years settling with REV, a holding company owned by entrepreneurs Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr. Today, it primarily operates as an e-commerce website and supports a network of independently owned, franchised RadioShack branded stores and is a supplier of parts for popular hobby shop HobbyTown USA.
According to the RadioShack DeFi website, REV believes that “Crypto hasn’t even gotten started yet,” citing the industry’s near $3-trillion market cap. The company says with the world’s financial activity topping $250 trillion cryptocurrencies still represent only a “blip on the radar.”
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REV believes that the RadioShack brand, which once operated over 8,000 stores in the U.S. alone “has hardly diminished and is still active in South America, the Middle East, and online globally as an e-commerce store.”
“Currently Crypto has no well-known brands over even 15 years old. Until now,” the company’s website reads.
Not only does RadioShack want crypto-enthusiasts to adopt its tech but it also aspires to become the main cryptocurrency tech utilized by major corporations.
“Imagine if brands like Louis Vuitton, Starbucks, and Mercedes-Benz utilized the RadioShack protocol for their DeFi projects,” REV muses in its official announcement of the new move.
“The need for a bridge between the CEOs who control the world’s corporations and the new world of cryptocurrencies will most likely come in the form of a well-known, century-old brand. RadioShack is perfect,” RadioShack states on its website.
It’s clear that Lopez and Mehr are basing the success of the entire operation on the strength of the RadioShack brand however the two may be underestimating just how difficult it will be to become a major player in the world’s emerging cryptocurrency markets.
