MSCHF’s 6 most outrageous pieces ever: the Big Red Boots went viral, but before that came Birkinstocks made from Hermès bags, worn by Kylie Jenner, and Eat the Rich lollies with Mark Zuckerberg’s face
- MSCHF’s art has included The Persistence of Chaos, a laptop loaded with malware, and human-sized paintings of real medical bills – auctioned to pay off those exact bills
- The ‘Banksy of consumer culture’ also made the Bull & Moon app that recommends stocks according to your zodiac sign, and was sued by Nike for its Lil Nas X Satan Shoes’ similarity to the Air Max 97
A small Brooklyn-based company, MSCHF (pronounced “mischief”), has built a successful business from a range of bizarre products that poke fun at our consumer culture and its values.
Founded by CEO Gabriel Whaley in 2016, MSCHF has gone viral with its stunts, selling such products as trainers with human blood in them, bath bombs in the shape of toasters, stock investing apps based on astrology, pixelated monopoly money, the “Times Newer Roman” font and those Big Red Boots every fashion influencer is wearing. To make things even more confusing, the brand’s LinkedIn indicates that it’s a dairy company.
This is not a company having an identity crisis though. MSCHF resolutely refuses any kind of label, with the company’s employees hesitant to even call themselves a “company”.
According to an interview with Business Insider, CEO Whaley said, “Being a company kills the magic, we’re trying to do stuff that the world can’t even define.”
They’ve certainly stuck to their word, launching many creations that are truly difficult to pigeon-hole. (Its latest project? A dating sim game called Tax Heaven 3000 set to drop on March 28, that supposedly files a US user’s income taxes and has the tag line: “Do your federal taxes while romancing your waifu!”)
Here are six of MSCHF’s most outrageous works ever ...