Rumble Kong League: turning a Web3 basketball IP into a playable product

Project overview

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Rumble Kong League is a 3x3 basketball-led Web3 sports brand and game on Ethereum. I joined in 2022 as Product Design Lead and stayed year+ across the period when RKL grew from a successful NFT mint into a multi-collection ecosystem with real partnerships (Stephen Curry, Paul George, Animoca, CAA Sports). I owned the web app, brand evolution, marketing site, minting flows, and design system.

Client

Rumble Kong League

Date

2022–2023

Industry

Gaming / NFT / Web3 sports

Role

Product Design Lead

Timeline

~year+

Stage

1 → N

Services

Product Design, Web App, Brand, Marketing, Minting

Context

RKL minted on July 28, 2021 (9,999 Kongs at 0.08 ETH each) into the heat of NFT summer and quickly attracted real basketball IP - Stephen Curry, Paul George, Under Armour, JDS Crypto, CAA Sports - plus a $4.5M raise in December 2021. By the time I joined, the project had a community, a 3D direction, and a game development partner (ILogos), but the product surfaces - web app, minting, sub-collection drops, marketing site - had not yet caught up to the IP. The work was about turning an NFT brand into something users could navigate, mint into, and play with.

Problem

  • - IP and brand recognition were strong; the web product surface was not on the same level.
  • - Sub-collection drops (Sneakers, Clubs, Curry Flow) shipped on different surfaces with different patterns.
  • - Minting UX was fragmented - each drop re-invented the same flow.
  • - The web app for team building and roster lacked a coherent IA.
  • - No design system to absorb a year of drops, partnerships, and content.

Selected visuals

Scroll visual 3

Approach

The principles and concrete choices that shaped the work - what we picked, and why we picked it.

  1. 01

    One minting flow, every drop inherits it

    Replaced per-drop bespoke minting pages with a single flow the team could re-skin per launch. Faster ship cycle for Rookies, Clubs, Sneakers, Curry Flow - same trust pattern every time.

  2. 02

    Web app organized by player intent, not blockchain feature

    The IA leads with "build my team", "see my Kongs", "check the drop" - not "wallet", "transactions", "ERC-721". Web3 plumbing lives behind the verbs that matter.

  3. 03

    Brand language that flexes for partnerships

    Stephen Curry, Under Armour, Paul George, and CAA Sports each carry their own visual gravity. Built a system where partner moments amplify the RKL brand instead of fighting it.

  4. 04

    Design system spanning web product, marketing, and minting

    Tokens, primitives, and density rules shared across all product surfaces. New collections ship on the same chassis instead of restarting in Figma.

Metrics

  • Funding raised pre-tenure

    Mint completed (July 2021)$4.5M raised (Dec 2021) from JDS Crypto, CAA Sports, Animoca Brands, IDEO Co-Lab, Victory Creative

    RKL Substack · Funding raised before I joined - listed for ecosystem context.

  • Strategic backers and IP partnerships

    NFT collection onlyStephen Curry, Paul George, Animoca Brands, Under Armour, CAA Sports - active sports IP partnerships

    RKL Substack / public press

  • Ecosystem collections

    1 (Rumble Kong League main collection, 9,999)4+ collections (Rumble Kongs, Rumble Rookies, RKL Clubs, RKL Sneakers, Curry Flow) - all on shared design system

    RKL Docs (Official Links)

  • Cumulative secondary volume

    Mint at 0.08 ETH per Kong~20.2K ETH cumulative trading volume on the main collection

    OpenSea · Cumulative across the project lifetime; market conditions are the dominant factor.

Impact

  • - Year+ as Product Design Lead across web, brand, marketing, minting, and system
  • - IP went from NFT collection to multi-collection ecosystem during my tenure (Rookies, Clubs, Sneakers, Curry Flow)
  • - Backed by Animoca Brands, Stephen Curry, Paul George, CAA Sports, IDEO Co-Lab, Under Armour

Qualitative outcomes

  • - New collection drops shipped on the same minting flow instead of bespoke launch pages.
  • - Web app organized around player intents - onboarding for users new to the IP got significantly more direct.
  • - Brand flexed across major sports IP partnerships without losing the RKL through-line.
  • - Design system absorbed a year of drops without screen-by-screen restarts.
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