VIRAL PRANKS SELL
The Big Red Boots invading your feed are made by the art collective MSCHF. According to its website, MSCHF is a conceptual collective developing elaborate interventions that expose and leverage the absurdity of our cultural, political, and monetary systems. Or as New York Times Sanam Yar puts it: “a very modern … business?” Art or business either way they are phenomenal in viral strategy.
Viral pranks sell
Fashion? Art? Design? MSCHF is a fairly new collective - a startup born under the rise of a pandemic; when global everyday life merged with digital. They do not sell products but rather viral pranks. E.g. an app that recommends stocks to buy based on one’s astrological sign, a service that sends pictures of A.I.-generated feet over text, a browser extension “that helps users get away with watching Netflix at work”. Their only post on LinkedIn refers to themselves as a dairy company. As Business Insider it's probably the best, and only, description you'll ever get of the startup behind AI-generated feet photos, an app for making stock investments based on astrological signs, and, most recently, a "Satan shoe" made with human blood.
The MSCHF collective is behind the internet's most memeable products: “Their products are meant to poke fun at everything and anything, because MSCHF takes pride in pushing the boundaries”. According to The New York Times MSCHF has raised at least $11.5 million in outside investments since the fall of 2019: In the high-risk, maybe-reward world of venture capital, the group’s antics are well known. Nikita Singareddy, an investment analyst at RRE Ventures, compared MSCHF to Vine and Giphy. All three, she said, offer “lots of delight” and encourage content sharing.”
The Red Boot take over
MSCHF is founded by former BuzzFeed employee Gabe Whaley. As Emmanuel Perrotin founder of Perrotin Gallery puts it in a bio on the website: “MSCHF provokes widespread public response as a means of performance, directly within the environments it critiques. Ultimately, the collective itself represents an intricate subversion of corporate structure, that seeks to challenge every sphere with which it comes into contact”. Apps, Rihannas ketchup lipstick, Jesus shoes with holy water and now going completely gen Alpha with 3D cartoonish Dora The Explorer-ish boots:
"The aesthetic Overton Window continues to stretch open towards the unreal," said the description on the product page. In other words, this aesthetic reflects the increasingly merging worlds of virtual and reality. "The continued blending of virtual and IRL aesthetic has us chasing supernormal stimuli. When half the sneakers we see on social media are renderings, we come to expect a baseline of unreality. Big Red Boots are VR chat boots."
A sort of Red Boot manifesto:
CARTOON BOOTS FOR A COOL 3D WORLD. CARTOONISHNESS IS AN ABSTRACTION THAT FREES US FROM THE CONSTRAINTS OF REALITY.
THE AESTHETIC OVERTON WINDOW CONTINUES TO STRETCH OPEN TOWARDS THE UNREAL. MCQUEEN’S ARMADILLO HEELS TRIPPED ON THE RUNWAY SO THAT THE BRB COULD RUN TO THE CORNER STORE. THE CONTINUED BLENDING OF VIRTUAL AND IRL AESTHETICS HAS US CHASING SUPERNORMAL STIMULI. WHEN HALF THE SNEAKERS WE SEE ON SOCIAL MEDIA ARE RENDERINGS, WE COME TO EXPECT A BASELINE OF UNREALITY. BIG RED BOOTS ARE VR CHAT BOOTS.
UNREALITY ACHIEVES WHAT CARTOONS HAVE KNOWN FOR DECADES: ABSTRACTED FORMS CONVEY THEIR CORE IDEA WITH AN IMMEDIACY THAT A FULLY REALIZED FORM CANNOT. THIS IS WHY ANIMATION CAN CONVEY COHERENT MOTION IN A FRACTION OF THE FRAMES LIVE ACTION REQUIRES.
HUNDREDS OF CHARACTERS, FROM THE MOUSE TO THE PLUMBER TO THE HUNGRY YELLOW CIRCLE, HAVE CONDUCTED THE SAME EXERCISE: HOW DO YOU MAKE A SHOE USING AS FEW GEOMETRIC PRIMITIVES AS POSSIBLE, AND STILL HAVE IT READ INSTANTLY? WHEN A HUMAN HAND HAD TO DRAW HUNDREDS OF FRAMES OF FOOTWEAR, THIS WAS A PRACTICAL NECESSITY. IT HAS ALSO PRODUCED A SYMBOL. THESE SHOE SHAPES BECOME GENERICIZED IN THE AUDIENCE’S MEMORY, AND ALL FULFILL THE SAME PURPOSE: TO INSTANTLY CONVEY THE IDEA OF ‘BOOT.’
IT’S A FOOTWEAR DESIGN TRUISM THAT THE SHAPE OF A SHOE IS NOT THE SHAPE OF A FOOT. BIG RED BOOTS ARE REALLY NOT SHAPED LIKE FEET, BUT THEY ARE EXTREMELY SHAPED LIKE BOOTS.
“GOOD THINKING BOOTS!”
- DORA THE ROYALTY FREE CHILD
MATERIALS/DETAILS: BIG, RED, TPU RUBBER SHELL, EVA OUT/MIDSOLE, PATENT PENDING