Fanatics & MSCHF Launch New Brands

Zerocool is Fanatics's new digital trading card brand, and MSCHF launches a sneaker line

Cultured is a newsletter that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more. Cultured is produced by Otis, an alternative investment platform that was recently acquired by Public.com.

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🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY

Fanatics launches a new trading card brand with an emphasis on digital sales 

• Fanatics Collectibles recently announced its new trading card brand, zerocool, which focuses on trading card versions of NFTs and other digital products. The brand is a collab with VeeFriends, Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT collection.

• All zerocool sales will use the Blind Dutch Auction format. This means that if there are 1,000 boxes for sale and 1,500 offers, the 1,000th highest bid is what everyone pays.

• You may be wondering if this has anything to do with Fanatics’s recent acquisition of Topps. Kind of. Topps’s older products will stay with that brand, though newer ones may have zerocool crossovers.

Our Take: Brands are getting more creative with the ways they mix NFTs and the real world. 

Fanatics made a strategic decision to make zerocool something more complicated than a simple NFT collection. Its desire to create physical versions of NFTs suggests that Fanatics still sees a future in real-world trading cards. The company is tight-lipped on future collections, but they’re sure to be equally exciting collaborations.

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MSCHF’s new sneaker collection is the first step in becoming a major footwear brand 

• MSCHF, the sneaker brand known for its subversive (and lawsuit-sparking) alterations of Nike shoes, is launching its first original line. Unlike its previous products, MSCHF Sneakers are designed by the company.

• The brand is still pushing boundaries, though. The TAP3, MSCHF’s first style, has a similar silhouette to a Nike AF1, but is wrapped with strips of MSCHF-branded packing tape. The box resembles a Nike box and has the logos blacked out.

• The TAP3 will be available on MSCHF’s app and on its website. The brand is tight-lipped about future drops, but says they will include collabs with well-known musicians and takes on other iconic sneaker formats.

Our Take: With its new sneaker line, MSCHF is trying to create a mainstream brand with an eye toward collecting. 

If MSCHF Sneakers succeeds, it’ll be the first footwear brand to make it big since sneaker collecting went mainstream. In their NYT interview, the collective said they are building their products with the goal of creating collectibles that both push the boundaries of fashion and are genuinely unique. “Who cares about endless ‘new’ releases that are just colorway iterations?” MSCHF said. “For an object that is supposed to encapsulate endgame capitalism, sneakers can still get way funkier.”

If you give me $10 I’ll wrap your AF1s in caution tape and call it a day.

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✨ AROUND THE INTERNET

• Sotheby’s and Christie’s canceled their Russian art auctions, which were scheduled for June. The auction houses had faced pressure to fall in line with international restrictions.

• NFTs are coming to Instagram, according to the Zuck himself. It’s not clear what form it’ll take, but users will be able to mint on the platform.

• The ball used by Tom Brady for his last pre-retirement pass sold for $518,000 at auction. It’s unclear what will happen to its value now that Brady has left retirement.

• Former NFL player Keith Rivers, an avid art collector, has curated his first show. It’s on display at FLAG Art Foundation in New York.

• Nate Lowman has teamed up with Supreme for a limited edition collection of clothes featuring the artist’s signature bullet hole designs.