It's pretty crazy that Kid Cudi, jack of all trades, has never really released a proper sneaker collaboration before. Luckily, MSCHF are rectifying things in short order.
Yep, Kid Cudi and MSCHF are dropping a shoe collab that takes MSCHF Sneakers' Super Normal 2 in a wild new direction, as revealed exclusively by Highsnobiety.
Cudi quietly revealed his MSCHF sneaker collab on June 23, when he headlined day one of Lyrical Lemonade's Summer Smash wearing the one-off sample of his forthcoming Super Normal 2.
And, if you found the recent colorways of MSCHF Sneakers' signature shoe a little too normal, boy, are Cudi's MSCHF sneakers a treat to take in.
The Kid Cudi x MSCHF Super Normal 2, releasing September 6 via raffle on MSCHF's website, is absolutely not normal at all, though it is definitely super.
In fact, the sample's style code, "INSANO," feels like a more apt moniker.
Kid Cudi's MSCHF sneakers retain the Super Normal 2's inherently approachable shape but up the ante with vivid, swirling fleece uppers dressed in hues that'd make Peter Max blush.
Differences include a beefed-up tongue — presumably to support Cudi's preferred ankle-stacking PSI (pant-shoe-interaction) — and the thick, trippy laces that look like they borrowed graphic inspiration from a pack of Laffy Taffy. In fact, what with delirious colors and studded applique on the forefoot, Cudi's MSCHF shoes really do feel like the kinda kicks that Willy Wonka might sport on a night out (no Gobstomper reference intended).
This is all very faithful to Kid Cudi's adventurous fashion sense. Need a primer? View Members of the Rage, Cudi's enigmatic clothing brand that's also supposedly launching later this year, perhaps coinciding with the release of Cudi's MSCHF sneakers.
In Cudi's wardrobe, subtlety is the enemy. It's boring to be boring when you can dress FUN! Hence blue Met Gala suits and red carpet wedding gowns.
So it ought to surprise no one that Cudi's MSCHF sneakers are as idiosyncratic as he is. This is what MSCHF Sneakers is all about, too: "The sneaker landscape is so incredibly stale," MSCHF co-founder Daniel Greenberg told me last year.
"Like, think about these collaborations where they bring in a celebrity to just change a color or emblem and that's it. If we were going to collaborate with a sneaker brand, they'd have to break open a new mold."
So, no cutting corners for the Kid Cudi collab: MSCHF went all the way in on wild fabrication and pattern.
The announcement of this Kid Cudi team-up follows a big streak of recent MSCHF wins. After restocking the internet-shredding Big Red Boot, MSCHF tapped Tommy Cash to reveal its sequel shoe, an equally enormous Crocs collaboration.
A week prior, MSCHF again smashed headlines with its miniscule Louis Vuitton handbag, which was created for Pharrell's auction house and may or may not have drawn the ire of Skateboard P's new employers, given that it was technically an unauthorized (if miniscule) bootleg.
MSCHF's Kid Cudi collaboration is just further proof that MSCHF remains untouchable.
And, yes, technically Kid Cudi has done one prior sneaker collaboration before. In 2020, he helped revive the adidas Artillery Hi to coincide with the premiere of Bill & Ted Face the Music, which boasts a Cudi cameo.
But lets be honest: it can't hold a candle to Cudi's killer MSCHF sneakers.
This article was published on June 24, 2023 and updated on September 6 to reflect the sneakers' release date.
