People are going Fanatical about the MSCHF Big Red Boots
After MSCHF’s Big Red Boots were discovered to have been leaked online on February 6, they have been an internet sensation, with a ton of famous people rocking the cartoonish kicks and several meme pages making fun of them.
“Cartoon boots for a 3D world,” is how MSCHF, the Brooklyn-based art collective that created the footwear, describes them. Cartoonish Ness is an abstraction that frees us from the limitations of reality, according to the product description. In these boots, if you kick someone, they go boing!
According to MSCHF: If you kick someone in these boots, they will go BOING. A clown shoe, I may add, will likewise alter your gait by requiring stiffer or more pronounced steps. A clown shoe can be disruptive because it combines familiarity and strangeness, making everyone aware that something is odd. The collective continues, “Big Red Boots are TRULY not shaped like feet, but they are VERY shaped like boots.” The users of the boots appear to be toying around with wearing them in the viral videos, unsure of whether their absurdly huge sizes are cool or ludicrous.
MISCHF as a Brand
MSCHF is not a name in fashion. Their entire business is making merchandise—clothing, fragrances, and food—that walks a fine line between an intellectual snicker and send-up of its own patrons. Past blockbusters include Smells like WD-40 (a fragrance that… you get the idea), Jesus shoes (sneakers with holy water infused into the soles so that you may walk on water), and Birkenstocks (sandals created from cut-up Birkin bags). They’re not above simpler art world pranks either.
They purchased a Damien Hirst spot print in 2020 for $30,000, cut out all the spots, and sold each spot separately, with the leftover holey paper fetching $261,400. They set up a cash machine at Art Basel Miami last year that collected pictures of each user along with a photograph.
The Big Red Boots, which are 2D-looking footwear for a 3D environment and are intended to be mostly viewed in 2D on people’s screens, have a lot to say about their intended virality. Furthermore, it is crystal clear that MSCHF’s entire act is a parody of consumer culture’s excessive excesses. They inquire as to how far you will submit to the hype gods. The galumphing ineptitude of the boots themselves as well as the sheer amount of coverage that one ridiculous pair of shoes can produce (including my own tiny contribution) have a delightfully goofy quality, as if our steadfast worldview were so easily shaken.
Nonetheless, despite the show’s rising profitability, there is pessimism throughout. MSCHF presents itself as an intelligent disruptor of the fashion and art industries. It’s in the name right there. By imitating its societal norms, spending habits, and abrupt inflation of value, MSCHF acts as a mirror to society, illuminating its absurdity. In the past, the clown would accomplish this by putting themselves through the humiliation rites, such as the enormous outfit and the pie in the face. The actual innovation of MSCHF, however, lies in their ability to have their cake and eat it too by placing the entire burden of shame on the audience—those who, by forking over $350, has turned into the joke.
Hype among celebrities
It appears possible that the boots do give wearers superpowers if you look at the several celebs who have been spotted sporting them. Before his match against the Lakers, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder was one of the first famous people to wear footwear. Gilgeous-amazing Alexander’s 30 points and eight assists helped OKC win the game. At the Celebrity All-Star Game, Janelle Monae released a video of herself practicing jump shots while wearing the boots. By displaying the boots during a spectacular halftime act at a Brooklyn Nets game, Coi Leray gained notoriety.
While on set, Lil Wayne paired his boots with large black and yellow striped shorts and a white button-down.
Wisdom Kaye, a TikTok sensation, social media influencer, and IMG model, used the boots to create one of his unique high-fashion outfits and shared a fit photo on Instagram. With purple Versace slacks, a graphic-print Marcelo Burlon County of Milan button-up shirt, and a Louis Vuitton hold-all bag, Kaye matched the Mschf red boots.