MSCHF Big Red Boots / Astro Boy Boots

About

MSCHF Big Red Boots are a pair of "high fashion" shoes released by the brand MSCHF in February 2023 that resemble Astro Boy Boots from the anime and manga series. They were released in February 2023 and many memes surfaced about them due to the perception that they were ugly or silly looking. Such memes surfaced on Twitter and TikTok regarding how to style them, if they could be styled and the repercussions of actually buying them akin to criticisms of hypebeast culture overall. NBA player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the first notable person seen wearing the boots. Many compared him and others to Astro Boy and Pac-Man.

Origin

On February 4th, 2023, fashion news outlet SAINT posted two photos to Twitter^[1] of what they labeled the "First Look: MSCHF Big Red Boot 👀." The tweet received roughly 10,900 likes in four days (shown below). The boots called the Big Red Boots (BRB) were made by the clothing brand MSCHF and were posted to its website^[2] around the same time and announced for release on February 16th, 2023.

On February 6th, 2023, fashion news outlet HYPEBEAST^[3] published its own article about the MSCHF boots. Then, HYPEBEAST posted a Reel to its Instagram^[4] page on February 6th that showed a pair of the boots in real life, earning roughly 273,200 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

Following SAINT's tweet,^[1] numerous replies surfaced that compared the boots to cartoon characters. For instance, on February 4th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user WesleyBitton compared them to Astro Boy's boots in a reply that received roughly 1,200 likes in four days (shown below, left). On February 4th, Twitter^[6] user _ChemaMendiola compared the boots to Saitama from One Punch Man, earning over 400 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Videos and photos of people trying on the boots and wearing them surfaced across Twitter and TikTok^[7] in early February 2023. The media led to a tweet from Twitter^[8] user neuume on February 6th, 2023, who added four screenshots with the caption, "I have not seen one person style those mschf boots correctly 😭😭," earning roughly 25,400 likes in two days (shown below).

On February 7th, 2023, Twitter^[9] user kzzrttt quote retweeted Twitter user neuume, writing:

the issue with wearing these is that they’re not meant for regular clothes like bro if you not dressing like harper from wizards of waverly place on the regular you have no business owning those astro boy 11s

The tweet received roughly 53,600 likes in one day (shown below, left). General memes also surfaced about the boots, like one posted by Twitter^[10] user ChaseGrizzly on February 7th that showed Tony Soprano disappointed by his son looking at the boots online, earning roughly 4,900 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References