MSCHF’s Big Red Boots Are Inescapable On Your Feeds

Steffi Cao
·3 min read
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Social media has been inundated with images of one latest viral fashion item — a pair of gigantic red rubber boots.

@george.esteve

#mschf #redboots

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They’ve been impossible to escape. Influencers styled them at New York Fashion Week. WWE fighter Seth Rollins stomped his opponent’s face while wearing them. And they’ve been ripe with never-ending memes opportunities.

A guest is seen wearing a black and green jacket, white top, red beret, and the big red boots outside the Collina Strada show during New York Fashion Week on Feb. 10, 2023
Daniel Zuchnik / Getty Images

Art collective MSCHF (pronounced “mischief”) created the comically large red boot based on the cartoon character Astro Boy.

The brand has been known to pull off similar stunts, like creating a counterfeit Nike “Satan Shoe” with Lil Nas X and tearing apart luxury Hermès Birkin bags to create sandals it called “Birkinstocks.” The big red boots are its latest attempt at a viral footwear moment.

The big red boots officially drop on Feb. 16, exclusively on the MSCHF website. Despite the $350 price tag, the item has already become the main character of our feeds. #Bigredboots has 25.8 million views on TikTok as of Wednesday. “i had a nightmare that i was being chased by them big red boots,” one person tweeted.

All the viral content with the boots seems to have been produced by influencers with gifted shoes or loans, an increasingly common tactic for brands to create hype around their products. Our friends at Complex received a loan to try them on, and the testers told us that they were heavy but more comfortable than expected.

Removal of the shoe has also been notoriously difficult due to its rubber composition. People have shared videos of trying to remove the boots, which have gone as viral as the memes about the boots themselves.

So the general user experience of the shoe already seems to be quite difficult, no matter how comfortable they are. Add that to the obvious waste and hype around the boot, and it seems that the one thing this shoe is actually good for is memes.

@hayek_yulia

Dream boots! You should get them. #mschf #bigredboots #astroboy

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“Imagine getting jumped and somebody shows up with the big red boots,” one user tweeted. “Ik those boots gotta marinate feet like crazyyy,” another commented.

Still, people are anticipating the day these boots become available to the public, to see if there is a chance to participate in all the fun. Would we recommend spending $350 for a pair of shoes that no one will be talking about in six months? Probably not. But if you can get a loan, or time-share a pair, we are excited to see the content you make with it.

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