Up to some MSCHF and Vans doesn't like it.

the "Wavy Baby" and its all too obvious inspiration

On April 6th, 2022, the design for the “wavy baby” shoe was released by MSCHF. Resembling a shoe we all knew, it felt too obvious that one would just assume a Vans collaboration. That assumption would be wrong, and it would prove to be a pinch point in the style/ approach of MSCHF going forward. The sneaker was created with rapper, Tyga, who promoted the shoes before their release date, April 18th.

The shoes were released and sold out within 10 minutes. But what was going on behind the scenes started days before release. Vans will have proactively contacted MSCHF and tried to settle this dispute outside of court. “To have the [Wavy Baby] drop go live [on April 18], they offered specific terms (as recently as 24 hours ago) asking for, among other things, half the profits and also four pairs of shoes for themselves. They also indicated they were willing to meet about future collaborations LMAO."

This in no way delayed the release of the shoe, just increased the hype surrounding it, and the idea you could get a “forbidden” pair of shoes was something that attracted a lot of people. MSCHF got off track when, “in late March, MSCHF told Highsnobiety about the painstaking production process necessary to create the MSCHF Sneakers line, explaining that every shoe that it releases is built from scratch.”. When looking at the depictions below, it would be a very hard guess that the “wavy baby” was made from scratch.

This is not the first time MSCHF has danced around that red paint and exposed itself to the legal world. In 2021, MSCHF had made a shoe with rapper, Lil Nas X. There is not much that needs to be said, take a look;

MSCHF saw no legal action from Nike for this move. It begs the question of when does it cross the line? If MSCHF creates shoes as a middle finger to the conglomerates, it’s their grave. In my honest opinion, I think Vans saw the shoes and simply got jealous that it wasn’t their design. Design and beauty alike, in the eye of the beholder, this is just copying and I’m here for it.

https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/vans-mschf-lawsuit-wavy-tyga-shoes-sneakers/

https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/mschf-sneakers-collection-tap3-shoes-drop/