In any case, the hype is not a coincidence: “trial boots” were sent to selected influencers who did what they had to do. Take a picture of yourself with the shoes and share the pictures on social networks. At the same time, the model Sarah Snyder, best known for her ex-liaison with Will Smith’s son Jaden, was sent in front of the camera to do her own advertising campaign.
In view of the shape of the shoes, heated debates were inevitable. Is the fashion world completely stupid now, some asked. Where to buy them immediately, the others. And immediately after the classic lifestyle media, major media such as CNN were also involved. The sale is supposed to start on Thursday, for a bargain price of 350 euros you own a pair of oversized rubber boots, which are reminiscent of the anime character Astro Boy in English-speaking countries and of Papa Smurf in Europe.
Between art, design and communication guerrilla
“Cartoon boots for a cool 3D world,” says the accompanying text from the creators of the shoes: “Cartoonness is an abstraction that frees us from the constraints of reality.” It is already clear here that the shoes are not is just a design gimmick. The creators call themselves MSCHF, pronounced “mischief”, meaning nonsense, and are no longer unknown.
The New York art collective has been exploring the boundaries of art, design and luxury commerce for years – but seems committed to one idea above all: communication guerrilla. According to the New York Times, the group has been active since 2016, but under its current name only since the summer of 2019. Since then, they have numbered their actions and designs, with which they cause public irritation, and usually provide them with their own website and a short ” Manifesto”.
Jesus Shoes and Satan Shoes
And they seem to be particularly fond of shoes. In 2019, they launched their Jesus Shoes, Nike sneakers that allegedly had holy water injected into the bubble sole. A year and a half later, their Satan Shoes caused even more excitement. With the rapper Lil Nas X, sneakers were designed with a drop of human blood in the sole.
Nike found both actions less funny and sued. And both collections were sold out in minutes despite the prices. For the Birkinstock project, the artist collective cut up four outrageously expensive Birkin bags in crocodile leather from Hermes – and made Birkenstock-esque sandals out of them. They asked for between $36,000 and $76,000 for them.
Plastic bags for $40
At best, MSCHF create luxury design pieces that are at the same time a parody of themselves. This creates media puzzles, common practices of capitalism are reinforced on the one hand and subverted on the other. And the collective lets those who take the campaign seriously and buy the design pieces pay a very high price for it.
The Only Bagy campaign sold bags from luxury labels such as Fendi, Prada and Burberry. But that’s not all: there was also a plastic bag with the inscription “Thank you” and a blue Ikea bag. Within a minute they were all sold for a flat price of 40 dollars.
In the big red boot trap
A similar success is already being predicted for project number 90, namely the Big Red Boots. Everyone who buys the boots is fooled by the group. And every website and newspaper that seriously discusses whether the boots are pretty, ugly, practical, avant-garde, or just plain stupid has actually fallen for the collective’s joke as well.
The group denied that the boots were a joke to the New York Times. “It’s not satire,” it said. But it’s interesting that we’re in a time when they don’t have to be a parody.
Criticism is not always subtle
The group was clearer about other campaigns: Under the motto “Eat the rich” they produced ice lollies with the stylized likenesses of Elon Musk, Jack Ma, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. The mobile game “Finger on the App” promised a cash prize of $25,000 to the person who held their finger on the phone screen for the longest time. After 70 hours, the profit was quartered.
The collective created oversized works of art from three horrendous medical bills, the consequences of a lack of health insurance in the USA. Proceeds from the sales benefited those people who had accumulated the bills.
Provocation also in galleries
In general, the collective not only conquers the media, but also the art world. At Art Basel in Miami last December, a playground for the super-rich, the group set up an ATM that stored the account details of the withdrawers and showed on its display a ranking by account balance plus a photo of the owner. And meanwhile MSCHF also had its first individual exhibition. Among other things, the robot dog Spot from Boston Dynamics, who was equipped with paintball guns under the title “Spot’s Revenge” was on display.
