👋 Hi fellow dumdums,

Meet MSCHF

MSCHF might just be the smartest idiots in any room—and that’s a compliment. They’ve built an entire business around making ridiculously dumb things, confusing investors, delighting the internet, and racking up lawsuits from brands like Vans and Nike (which, honestly, is a great metric for success).

You might know them already. Maybe you’ve seen their Big Red Boots, the absurdly oversized footwear that looks like it was ripped straight from Super Mario 64. And yet, somehow, they convinced NBA players and fashion models to wear them unironically. 🤣

But MSCHF isn’t just about making weird things for the sake of it. They specialize in controlled chaos—turning cultural commentary into viral products, legal headaches, and limited-edition moments that disappear as soon as they make their point. Think of them as Warhol and Duchamp if they had access to meme culture, sneaker drops, and venture capital.

They’re Dumbify thinking in its purest form. So let’s break it down.

Let’s get dumb.

How MSCHF Masters the Art of Dumb Thinking

1. They reframe the absurd as culture

MSCHF doesn’t sell products. They sell ideas disguised as products.

Take their Birkinstocks—a perfect example of how they turn cultural artifacts into punchlines. They bought four Hermès Birkin bags, shredded them, and transformed the scraps into sandals priced between $34,000 and $76,000. It wasn’t just a luxury product; it was a provocation. A luxury fashion Frankenstein that blurred the line between hype, trolling, and heresy.

They didn’t just make an expensive shoe, they made a thought experiment you could wear. Was it a critique of luxury pricing? A flex for the ultra-wealthy? A high-fashion ransom note?

This is how MSCHF works. They don’t just participate in culture—they bend it, break it, and repackage it in ways that make its absurdity impossible to ignore.

2. They’re not afraid to ask big dumb questions

Most people try to solve problems by making them more efficient. MSCHF takes the opposite approach: they ask the dumbest possible version of a question and build from there.

Take Tax Heaven 3000, their anime dating sim that also files your taxes. Instead of making a TED Talk about how broken the U.S. tax system is, they asked:

"What if filing taxes felt more like playing a video game?"

It’s a ridiculous premise, but that’s exactly what makes it work. Rather than accepting the status quo—that tax software should be tedious, confusing, and soul-crushing—MSCHF replaced it with a pink-haired anime girl who helps you navigate federal tax forms through flirtation. It was equal parts parody, performance art, and IRS paperwork.

3. Their inventions are always counter-intuitive or paradoxical by design

MSCHF thrives on ideas that shouldn’t work—concepts that seem too contradictory, too ridiculous, or too self-defeating to make sense. And yet, they do.

A great example? Their Eat the Rich Ice Cream Truck.

This wasn’t some intellectual manifesto about wealth inequality. MSCHF took one of the most extreme political statements of all time (literally eating the rich) and dumbed it down into an ice cream truck. A harmless, delicious, neon-colored joke. And yet, somehow, that joke hit harder than any think piece on economic disparity.

They took something shocking and made it absurdly casual. They turned class warfare into a limited-time summer treat. The absurdity worked because it left people unsure whether they were in on the joke or the butt of it. Were you participating in protest, or proving MSCHF’s point that capitalism can commodify anything, even its own destruction?

And that’s the paradox that makes their ideas land so well. Instead of calling out hypocrisy, they sell it to you—and let you figure out whether you just bought into it.

Dumb Word of the Day: Détournement

(Pronounced day-tour-na-mohn, because everything sounds cooler in French.)

Détournement literally means “rerouting” or “hijacking,” but in art and culture, it’s the act of taking something familiar—a brand, an object, a symbol—and remixing it into something that challenges or subverts its original meaning. It’s cultural judo: using an existing idea’s own weight against itself.

MSCHF does this better than anyone. Their "Jesus Shoes" took a mass-market Nike sneaker, injected holy water from the Jordan River into the soles, and rebranded them as a religious relic—with a $1,425 price tag. The result? A luxury commodity that forced people to ask: Are these shoes sacred, or just overpriced hype? Or is that the same thing?

MSCHF’s entire playbook is built on détournement. They don’t just create new things—they reweaponize old ones, turning brands and symbols into the punchline of their own absurdity.

The MSCHF Challenge

Spend five minutes today brainstorming an idea that:

✅ Shouldn’t be a product.
✅ Would still sell out instantly.

Would you sell pre-peeled bananas in luxury packaging?

A mystery subscription where customers don’t even know if they’ll get anything?

A car that randomly chooses your destination when you enter?

MSCHF proves that ideas don’t need to be practical—they just need to be talkable. The best dumb ideas aren’t designed to last; they’re designed to make people pause, laugh, argue, and share. So don’t worry about whether your idea makes sense—just make it impossible to ignore.

How to Think Like MSCHF Toolkit:

Want to channel your inner high-concept troll? Here are three Dumbify-approved techniques inspired by MSCHF’s playbook:

✓ Subvert Expectations – Take something familiar and flip its meaning. MSCHF turned a Nike sneaker into a theological debate. What’s something normal you can twist into something weirdly profound?

✓ 2. Make the Spectacle the Point – The product isn’t the product—the reaction is. MSCHF’s biggest wins (Big Red Boots, Birkinstocks) weren’t just things—they were conversations. What’s something you can create that forces people to talk about it?

✓ Play the Short Game – Most companies build for the long haul. MSCHF builds for the moment. Their drops aren’t meant to last—they’re meant to explode, trend, and disappear. What’s something ephemeral you could make that still leaves an impact?

Thanks for diving into the wild world of MSCHF with me today!

SHARE YOUR FAVORITE DÉTOURNEMENT: Have you ever taken something ordinary, flipped it on its head, and turned it into something unexpected? Maybe you pulled off a prank that became legendary, or repurposed something in a way that made people question reality. Tell me your best MSCHF-worthy stunt—the most brilliantly dumb submission wins a signed copy of Dumbify.

Stay mischievous,
David

P.S. Know someone who needs a little more chaos in their creativity? Forward this email—because sometimes the best ideas come from breaking the rules and making a little mischief.