Visa creates gloves, collectible pins and stickers for wireless purchases at Winter Olympics

Visa has officially announced three innovative NFC payment options for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.

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The international multi-sport event is still a few months away and is scheduled to take place from 9 to 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea. These will be the the second Olympic Games held in South Korea, after the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, and will be South Korea’s first Winter Games.

In the spirit of the event, Visa has created gloves, commemorative stickers and collectable pins with built in NFC technology. Already available for purchase in Korea, they will allow wearers to make secure payments at more than 1,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals at Olympic venues. Fans will also be able to purchase them during the event at Olympic Superstores.

“Growing up in South Korea, I am proud that my home country is hosting the Games, and is using this opportunity to introduce Visa payment innovations to the rest of the world. We are looking forward to transforming the payment experience for everyone who attends the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang,” said Iain Jamieson, Korea country manager at Visa.

“At Visa, we have been working tirelessly to ensure all of the Olympic venues are equipped with the very latest payment capabilities to provide the best experience possible for all those on-site.”

With temperature expected to average below -5°C, these payment options may be a popular purchase. The items will come embedded with prepaid amounts of KRW30,000, KRW50,000, KRW100,000 and KRW200,000.

“It is important to me, as a Winter Olympian, to work with a brand like Visa that not only supports a diverse group of athletes, but also enables an enhanced fan experience for those at the Games,” said Mikaela Shiffrin, USA Olympic gold medalist and Team Visa athlete.

“Olympic pins are always the most coveted collectibles, these Visa pins really up the ante.”

The payments industry is increasingly moving away from plastic to digital. To this end Visa and its partners are introducing new technology to make purchasing simple and secure. This includes everything from sunglasses you can use to pay for stuff to NFC enabled rings. We have yet to see one of these options take off in a big way though.

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