MSCHF’s Big Red Boots Are All Over New York Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week is a stomping ground for trendsetters and tastemakers. Naturally, from runway looks to street style ensembles, the fashion tends to trickle down. While most of this season’s trends are slaps — rosettes, slingbacks, and exposed thongs (I said what I said) — one pair of shoes is tearing the internet apart: the Big Red Boot.

Photos of the aptly-named shoe were first released on Feb. 6 and since then, it’s been colloquially dubbed the “Astro Boy” boot, in reference to the cartoon’s famous footwear of Osama Tezuka’s 1963 anime character.

The $350 shoes were created by MSCHF Sneakers, a sub-label of the Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF. It’s safe to say, the brand is known for pushing the boundaries in fashion. Remember those wavy shoes that looked a lot like VANS? That’s an MSCHF creation. Or these medical-style boots that resembled casts? Also by MSCHF. The label even launched the “Satan Shoes,” a controversial collab with Lil Nas X that contained an actual drop of blood.

In the name of “experimentation,” MSCHF co-founder Daniel Greenberg told Highsnobiety, “The Big Red boot is a realization of a specific sort of cartoonish abstraction of a shoe.” He added, “You never design shoes to be shaped like feet. Big Red Boots are REALLY not shaped like feet, but they are EXTREMELY shaped like boots.”

That they are.

On Twitter, the boots are the gift that keeps on giving. At this point, the crimson statement-makers have been extensively memed.

The divisive pair has its fans though, and celebrities and influencers alike have already begun rocking the shoe. Singer and actor Janelle Monáe has been posting her pair all over Twitter, styling them expertly with a boxy, striped cardigan.

Meanwhile, Lil Wayne was spotted in a pair of his own while at a New York Fashion Week event, where the bold shoe has become a mainstay. Across the city, attendees have been wearing the pair relentlessly. The week isn’t yet over, but the Big Red Boots have already become part of the unofficial NYFW starter pack.

And if you thought the shoes had reached their peak, I’m sorry to be the harbinger of a particularly harsh reality check. These babies actually still have yet to drop, which means you’ll likely be seeing more of the humongous footwear after its Feb. 16 release. You’ve been warned.