After ‘Satan Shoes,’ MSCHF wants to break the internet with... hyped emails?

Fresh off of a lawsuit with Nike, MSCHF is back with another ludicrous product — but this time, the item isn’t totally tangible. Instead, the Brooklyn-based brand has created five different email addresses, with each domain limited to 50 consumers. The accounts are fully functional, and are a fashion statement, according to the brand. Its drop manifesto reads: “Your email address is a fashion statement. Your fashion statement is who you are.” So, if you don’t want your fashion statement to be gmail.com, MSCHF has you covered.

The brand’s newest drop doesn’t infringe on any other companies or logos — no doubt a result of its legal troubles with Nike — but that doesn’t mean MSCHF won’t release unofficially branded products again. The brand was able to survive Nike’s lawsuit, as the Swoosh really just sought to protect its reputation, and with past products teasing Birkenstock, Hermés, and more, we doubt MSCHF will completely drop its artistic altered products — it just might avoid using the Swoosh on any of its future items.

Welcome to the wild, wild web — MSCHF has lined up five email domains for consumers to choose from: [you]@heavensgate.biz, [you]@thepiratebay.biz, [you]@angelfire.biz, [you]@megaupload.biz, and [you]@4chan.biz. Interested customers pick their preferred address — or buy all five addresses in a bundle pack — and select any username they’d like. Each email is limited to 50 slots.

Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF’s creative director, told Input that the brand settled on these domain names because they “represent classic archetypes,” noting each is “a bit shady.” With the .biz addition especially, the addresses are reminiscent of an “old, weird, Wild West internet,” Wiesner added. “Reject modernity; embrace tradition!”

Of course, with MSCHF, there’s a deeper meaning behind the project than cool email names. Wiesner said the new drop was inspired by NFTs, which see huge amounts of value in digital assets. MSCHF’s Email Capsule Collection plays into this, but the difference, Wiesner said, is that an email address is actually limited, whereas an NFT “relies on willful suspension of disbelief regarding the equivalence of duplicates of a digital asset!” According to Wiesner, “domain names are the OG NFTs.”

Cop your cyber character — While NFTs have sold for millions, MSCHF’s email domains are slightly more affordable. Each address costs $250, and if consumers are interested in buying the “box set” of all five domains, they can do so for $1000. All emails are up for purchase beginning April 12 on a website specially designed by MSCHF.

Along with their chosen email address[es], users will be mailed (IRL) an activation disc, protective case, commemorative card, and two stickers. Fitting in with the retro design of the drop, each activation disc takes on a nostalgic “old internet” ’90s look, playing into MSCHF’s argument that its email addresses are fashion.

“Fashion is lots of things: an identity signifier, a wealth signifier,” the drop’s site reads. “Online, exclusivity is a status signifier. Sent from my iPhone. Sent via Superhuman.” Combined, the two factors make coveted email domains, that, in a digital world, seem to define us. Especially as we work from home and receive emails reading “nice to e-meet you,” our digital personas are more important than ever — and now you can add a little character to it through MSCHF’s exclusive domains.