MSCHF's BWD Successor Is a... Completely Normal Sneaker
Around ten months ago, MSCHF announced the release of its BWD sneaker, a shoe that is open on both ends, allowing it to be worn either way. Now, the Brooklyn-based art collective has announced that it has a follow-up shoe with the apt name: FWD.
No longer offering the option to be worn back to front (or front to back, I guess) the FWD takes a more orthodox approach.
The double-ended heel opening from the BWD has been replaced and now the conventional parts of a shoe can be easily identified: there’s a toe box, laces, a tongue, a heel with a pull tab… the lot.
Keeping to the same color scheme as its predecessor, the FWD has a white base with hits of orange on the heel and tongue. Plus, as a gentle reminder of which way to wear this pair, it is decorated with arrows pointing forward.
This is the standard-looking shoe on which the BWD was based on. And it looks even more “normal” than MSCHF’s wavy-paneled Super Normal Sneaker.
Available now via a draw on the MSCHF Sneakers App, a pair of the FWD sneakers will set you back $135 — provided you get picked in the draw.
MSCHF's sneaker releases can pretty accurately be split into two groups. There’s the experimental, WTF-inducing group (in which its famous Big Red Boot is the leader) and then there’s the wearable, more traditional footwear options in the other group.
Its BWD sneaker belongs to the former group whereas its follow-up, the FWD, belongs to the latter.
This split personality has seen the art collective’s sneaker label shake up what it previously described to Highsnobiety as an “incredibly stale” sneaker landscape.
Orthopedic boots turned sneakers, shoes with hidden money inside, shoes containing human blood; there’s no knowing what you’re going to get next from MSCHF Sneakers.
This time, it has opted for a more regular sneaker silhouette than normal.