MASTERS OF SCARCITY AND FOMO: Meet MSCHF, the Company Pushing the Boundaries of Art and Commerce

Direct-to-consumer company - or art collective? Ketchup packet - or lip gloss, what’s next?!

Feb 04, 2025

MSCHF has been generating MASSIVE buzz with its provocative product and media drops.

As an example, its collaboration with YouTuber MrBeast, which offered $100,000 to the last player standing with their finger on a ‘game’ app.

Other viral launches included a Damien Hirst spot print that MSCHF ‘severed’, and sold, and pictures of feet that didn’t exist.

Launched in 2016, MSCHF is a Brooklyn-based art collective backed by venture capital that conceptualizes and sells viral products, frequently drawing inspiration from art and cultural themes.

MSCHF is a direct-to-consumer company that sells limited edition products. They are viral gurus and masters of scarcity marketing.

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MSCHF digital-only offerings are dropped every two weeks, and each launch gets its own website. The products sell out near-instantly.

The MSCHF Jesus and Lil Nas X’s Satan shoes sold out within minutes of being dropped.

MSCHF has mastered the art of creating desirability and scarcity (think: the impossible-to-get Hermès Birkin; or the elusive McDonald’s McRib sandwich or Taco Bell nacho cheese fries).

Even toaster-shaped BATH BOMBS sold out, and MSCHF flanks the drops with related creative content - the bath bombs had their own manifesto.

Some launches are legally provocative - case in point, Nike v. MSCHF, over the Lil Nas Satan shoes.

In addition to its regular product releases, MSCHF hosts periodic online auctions to sell its most exclusive items, with many realizing sky-high hammer prices.

For instance, in June, 2023, the company auctioned a fluorescent green Louis Vuitton bag which fetched a staggering $63,750.

The twist? The "bag" was microscopic, literally, measuring just .03 inches wide.

Partnerships

Brands are tapping MSCHF to help them create viral marketing buzz.

In one such example, Rihanna sought out MSCHF to help her promote her beauty brand, Fenty.

In a daring mashup of art with commerce, MSCHF and Fenty collaborated on a limited-edition series of $25 ketchup packets, called, “Ketchup or Makeup?”. Andy Warhol, anyone?

For $25, you got a box of six packets that contained either Fenty’s Lip Luminizer - or - actual ketchup, with, supposedly, a combination of both in the container.

More to come on this exciting collective. The Retail Dispatch will continue to follow these viral vanguards.

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