🔥FIRE SALE🔥 No. 12
The Red Boots 🎈and Stunt Shoes 👟 on the Vanguard
You could almost hear the rubber squeak as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander walked down the tunnel to the locker room in Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF’s now-infamous Red Boots. Looking at the image online, you can hear the annoying squeal, more piercing than a sneaker pivoting on a back cut to the basket. When one beholds the strangeness of his boots, the natural reaction is bewilderment but also intrigue.
MSCHF is no stranger to controversial feats of weirdness. The Lil Nas X “Satan Shoes,” which included human blood in the soles and arguably kicked off the current right-wing satanic panic, was their conception. Their ability to animate, excite, and conjure disdain and contempt is notorious, and the Red Boots are just the latest in a string of stunts that are almost universally met with a groan.
There will always be a group who will lament absurdity (Marcel Duchamp had no shortage of haters), but the Red Boots and their self-effacing critique of sneaker culture are a rare moment to stand up as someone who can move beyond the shock value that is so obvious that you prove yourself to be a simpleton if you take the bait and regurgitate the contrived and obligatory dismissal.
Before I discuss the Red Boots, I think it is important to touch on the continuing influence of the Balenciaga Triple S. These shoes, which were also incredibly polarizing, introduced a new silhouette and, frankly, a new paradigm that had been percolating in visual culture. One could see the Triple S’s shape permeating from afar. In 2017, with the proper styling, Nike Air Monarchs, Sketchers, and New Balances (dad shoes) were emerging as admissible sneakers for those who cared about fashion. The Triple S was the final concoction that revealed the absurdity of the most contemporary silhouette to consumers. This naked reflection of our emerging tastes was initially disorienting to consumers, and when formally introduced, were vehemently rejected…until they weren’t.
The Balenciaga Triple S introduced the contemporary outrage-to-cool cycle, and MSCHF has taken up the mantel. Again, the Triple S was roundly ridiculed for its silliness when it arrived on the market, but their grotesque form, rejection of sleekness, and ridiculous gall made the bastardized SketchUp interesting and then desirable. The Red Boots, with its 2-D shape and style that feels more at home on Roblox than on the runway, are also being disregarded for their form, which has been emerging in footwear for some time. Consumers didn’t cop Balenciaga’s in droves, but it did codify the chunky sneaker as the ideal silhouette for years to come. MSCHF’s latest are operating on the same level.
The Red Boots are the same formulation for our current footwear trends – a Triple S for our time. Whether it is the Ugg revival, the return of Moon Boots, or Kanye West’s massive Red Wing boots, MSCHF’s channeled the zeitgeist and created the Red Boot from the ether. The real genius lies in their ability to take Balenciaga’s cultural critique one step further.
The Red Boot, with its anime portions and unavoidably sterile red, mocks the absurd regard we have for footwear in a world where shoes are traded like commodities. Gilgeous-Alexander and everyone who has donned the Red Boots look comical in them, but that is beside the point. The purpose of the Red Boot is to revel in that absurdity and to have a crack at the nonsense of sneaker culture. They throw a sense of propriety in the face of sneaker purists. They are a post-modern critique of the sneaker culture – a wearable Jeff Koon’s sculpture that is a mocking manifestation of hype.
I reject the premise that these shoes are simply “stunts.” The Triple S and, now one step further, the Red Boots are both totems of the extreme trends of our time. They are the DALL·E 2’s manifestation of “fashion sneaker” or the post-modern platonic ideal of “boot. That absurd clarity is hard to stomach but is a harbinger of boots to come. MSCHF, whether you like them or not, has created a new paradigm, and we can’t put the shoes back in the box or click our red boots together three times and say, “There's no place like home.”
MSCHF has also fundamentally reminded people that wearing big ridiculous boots is, in fact, fun.
Hunter boots are, of course, a staple of the 2010s sorority girl, but before that, they were the envy of the European trench soldiers during WW1 because of their protection from the mud. I especially like this pair of tall red rain boots. You can capture the absurdity of the Red Boots with none of the mental confusion from onlookers. These Hunter x Target ankle boots with a nice red accent are a good way to distinguish yourself from the Brooklyn Blundestoners.
The last good thing Kanye did before he went full Henry Ford-level antisemite was introducing the world to these insanely proportioned Red Wing boots. You can cop the ones he was spotting wearing for a whopping $2500 on Grailed, or you can get these rubber boots with interesting scalelike details and a striking Balenciaga-SS20-show-blue sole for $75. I was surprised to see such a difference in price, considering I have never seen the likes of rubber boots before.
I’d like to leave you with the English opening from Astro Boy (1980). I find that the 1980s series is the purest manifestation of the character. Like most comic book characters, creators spent the first decade or so getting their footing, and by 1980, the Astro Boy character is fully formed visually.