Messi Deal Renewed as Icons Launches TripleLock with Crane

The Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi has renewed his exclusive memorabilia contract with the company Icons, which is rolling out its TripleLock™ anti-forgery system, developed in partnership with Crane Authentication.

TripleLock is designed to combat forgery in the valuable signed memorabilia market by combining three independent security ‘locks’ to tie a specific physical item (eg. a signed shirt, boot or print) to verifiable proof of signing and provenance.

Lock 1 is an encrypted near-field communication (NFC) chip, which is embedded in the item upon signing. The user can then tap their phone against the chip to open a secure online verification page (no app required). That page brings up the full digital record for that specific item.

Lock 2 is a certificate of authenticity (COA) that contains provenance information, signing details, and item history. Each COA includes a unique code that links the physical certificate to the product’s digital record. It also features a photo capturing the exact moment the product was signed, complete with a date stamp and geolocation.