When MSCHF Sneakers dropped the ironically-named Super Normal shoe early summer 2022, it poked the bear. The all-white low-top sneaker was obviously a (legally distinct) riff on Nike's omnipresent Air Force 1, cheekily jabbing the Swoosh after it successfully sued MSCHF over Lil Nas X's co-signed Satan Shoe back in 2021.
Still, the Super Normal utilized its plain white colorway to obscure the intricately warped leather upper that MSCHF painstakingly sampled across multiple factories. The end result was a shoe that looked as, well, normal as any other white sneaker on the market, at least from a distance.
MSCHF's Super Normal 2 flips the script. Kind of.
The Super Normal 2 is no longer a plain white sneaker, for instance. It now sports a hairy black suede upper that "drips" down over the redesigned sole — notice that the MSCHF branding towards the heel is now nearly as distorted as the paneling above.
This texture also gives the new MSCHF sneaker its moniker, "5 O'Clock Shadow," as if it's grown a facefull of scruff.
MSCHF's Super Normal 2 may be the second of its kind but it's a first in several ways. Like, it'll be the first MSCHF Sneakers release held in-person.
On November 3, MSCHF will kick off its debut art exhibit at Perrotin's New York gallery space and, to accompany the strip mall-themed show, there's a shoe.
Only 666 pairs of the Super Normal 2 will ever be made and they'll release exclusively at Perrotin, ensconced in wooden crates that MSCHF co-founder Daniel Greenberg describes as "sick."
Hard to disagree.
The 666 motif isn't just an indicator of rarity or some kind of sly nod to artist editions, though.
It's also an oblique homage to MSCHF's Satan Shoe, arguably the collective's most explosive creation ever; loved by sneakerheads, loathed by Nike.
Get beneath me, Satan!
Anyways, you could look at the Super Normal 2's 666 numbering as a pat on the back, sure, but it's really more of a reminder that MSCHF exists to provoke — provoke thought, the powers that be, whatever.
"MSCHF has figured out exactly what makes contemporary capitalism tick, and what ticks it off," Perrotin curator Michael Darling wrote in an essay that inaugurates MSCHF's exhibit, recalling the furor that Nike kicked up over the Satan Shoes.
Because sneaker culture has proven such fertile territory for the MSCHF collective, there'll be an entire Footlocker-themed space within its mall-inspired exhibit, where guests can peruse and purchase designs from MSCHF Sneakers rather than the Nikes of the world.
Expect to see MSCHF's walking boot-inspired AC.1 shoe and Jimmy Fallon-approved Gobstomper sneaker alongside some other curios.
Don't expect to see the Key 4 All car, though: that thing is long gone.
