MSCHF

MSCHF is a Brooklyn-based art collective and consumer-products studio founded in 2016 by Gabriel Whaley. The group first drew broad attention through internet-based projects that treat distribution, publicity, and resale as parts of the work. Its early drops included The Persistence of Chaos, a laptop loaded with six notorious pieces of malware; in 2019 it sold at auction for $1.345 million. The project was exhibited as art, and the software was configured so it could not connect to the internet, a safety condition documented in the sale listing. In 2021, MSCHF released “The Satan Shoes,” a modified set of 666 Nike Air Max 97s made with rapper Lil Nas X. Each pair contained a drop of red ink and one drop of human blood in the air bubble, according to the project’s materials; the shoes sold for $1,018 each. Nike sued MSCHF over trademark claims, and the parties reached a settlement that offered buyers a buyback. The episode made the limits of brand ownership and unauthorized alteration central to a mass-market news story. In 2022, it sold the Wavy Baby shoes, sneakers distorted to resemble a cartoon rendering of Vans’ Old Skool silhouette. Vans sued, and a federal judge later issued a preliminary injunction over the product. The same year, MSCHF released the microscopic Louis Vuitton handbag, an object small enough to pass through a needle’s eye. Created with visual artist collective JOLT, the bag was auctioned by Pharrell Williams’ auction house JOOPITER for $63,750. MSCHF also made “ATM Leaderboard,” an automated teller machine installation that displayed a user’s bank-account balance beside a ranking; it appeared at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2022. In 2023, it released Big Red Boots, oversized bright-red footwear modeled on cartoon-like shapes. Celebrities and social media quickly amplified the boots, while the company framed them as “cartoon boots for a 3D world.” The studio has also sold a box titled “Cereal Killer,” containing breakfast-cereal boxes designed around notorious killers, and published a 2023 issue of its own magazine, “MSCHF Mag.” Its output crosses shoes, apps, printed matter, objects, and auctions, but its recurring method is specific: using limited releases and recognizable commercial language to turn circulation itself into the subject of an artwork. Rather than operating as a conventional fashion label, MSCHF uses its releases to test how corporations, collectors, courts, and online audiences assign value to ordinary branded things after becoming public spectacles online.