About the speaker
It was one of the biggest viral phenomena in 2023: big, chunky, bright red shoes that look like they came from a cartoon. Or from a 3D printer. The ‘Big Red Boots’ were worn at fashion shows, presented by global music stars such as Travis Scott or companies such as Berlin's public transport operator. And they have garnered huge reach on countless social media accounts (including Jannik ‘Jadadiee’ Diefenbach, who will be a speaker at OMR25). However, there is no planned gag, meme account or anything similar behind the viral shoes. They come from the US art collective MSCHF. Founder and CEO to this day is Gabriel Whaley. Since 2019, MSCHF has been focussing on a mixture of provocations and border crossings, combining art with technology or global consumer culture. The results are not always somehow absurd, but nevertheless genuine fashion pieces. For example, the very first drop was about a laptop. It was infected with the most dangerous computer viruses at the time by Chinese artist Guo Dong - and sold at auction for almost 1.4 million US dollars. With actions like these, Gabriel Whaley and MSCHF want to challenge conventional notions of art and commerce. As a result of these pop-cultural moments, MSCHF is now not only a household name in the art scene - with pieces exhibited in the world's major museums and galleries - but is also considered by many to be one of the most innovative companies in the world thanks to extremely technically complex projects such as the smallest bag in the world (‘smaller than a grain of salt’ was sold for over 63,000 US dollars).
Gabriel Whaley at OMR
It was one of the biggest viral phenomena in 2023: big, chunky, bright red shoes that look like they came out of a cartoon. Or from a 3D printer. The “Big Red Boots” were worn at fashion shows, presented by global music stars such as Travis Scott or companies such as Berlin's public transport company. And they have garnered huge reach on countless social media accounts (including Jannik “Jadadiee” Diefenbach, who will be a speaker at OMR25). However, there is no planned gag, meme account or anything similar behind the viral shoes. They come from the US art collective MSCHF.
Founder and CEO to this day is Gabriel Whaley. Since 2019, MSCHF has focused on a mixture of provocations and border crossings, combining art with technology or global consumer culture. The results are not always somehow absurd, but nevertheless genuine fashion pieces. For example, the very first drop was about a laptop. It was infected with the most dangerous computer viruses at the time by Chinese artist Guo Dong - and auctioned off for almost 1.4 million US dollars.
With actions like these, Gabriel Whaley and MSCHF want to challenge conventional notions of art and commerce. As a result of these pop-cultural moments, MSCHF is now not only a household name in the art scene - with pieces exhibited in the world's major museums and galleries - but also a household name in the art world.
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