It’s Time to Take Kerwin Frost Seriously
Kerwin Frost is in his element on the eve of New York Fashion Week. Frost has just entered a hotel room that’s crammed to the gills with more clothing than a Saks Fifth Avenue. His thoughts are racing around in his head, and you can almost hear them. He only arrived at the Plaza a few hours ago, but the empty area has already been taken up by three sagging clothing racks filled with expensive wear. The carpet is littered with a plethora of sneakers and boots.
This is what Frost and his manager Erin may wear to presentations and parties throughout fashion week. When Frost, the 26-year-old king of the internet’s most outrageous clothes, steps out, he’s wearing a matching cow print sweater and shorts, complete with a giant hat. The most bizarre thing in the room, though, is on Frost’s feet: a massively inflated pair of Adidas Superstars. Shoes resembling clowns, except with three horizontal stripes instead of one.
In this case, it’s the Adidas x Kerwin Frost Superstuffed sneakers, which are padded and stretched out to look like a shoe five sizes larger than the one shown on the tag. You can walk around in LeBron James’ shoes if your size is 10, which means you are a size 10. Frost’s sneakers may not be useful, but no sneaker release in 2021 has been as much fun or as surprising as the Superstuffed from the brand Frost. All 500 pairs of these sneakers, which were released at the end of August to mixed reviews, sold out in a matter of minutes. Frozen shoes are beyond of reach for many people, including the character himself.
When it comes to wearing these shoes, there are at least two clear questions that arise. And, um, why would you want to? Frost is ready with his responses, and they reveal a lot about how a new generation of viral creators has been able to establish themselves as legitimate artists.
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Conversely to Nike, which frequently partners with experimental fashion designers, Adidas prefers to work with more conventional partners, such as A-list celebrities (such as Kanye West and Beyoncé), legendary designers (such as Yohji Yamamoto and Stella McCartney), or popular streetwear-related firms (Palace, Noah). Frost, on the other hand, is a bit more evasive. In SoHo and the Supreme wait, a high school dropout from Harlem got his most formative education by flipping albums to visitors at the rear of the line. Spaghetti Boys, a guerilla DJ and merch collective, was created in 2013 by Frost and a group of his fashion-obsessed buddies.
Pranksters selling T-shirts in the streets of New York City looked like a good time—until they ran into the ways the fashion industry was changing.
Frost pounced as the industry’s gatekeepers began to let influencers in a little at a time. By making his costumes go viral, Frost gained hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers as well as a slew of A-list pals including Kanye West, ASAP Rocky, and Tyler the Creator. He then went on to start a charmingly uncomfortable interview series called Kerwin Frost Talks, became a well-booked and busy DJ, and started an annual film festival, transforming his boundless energy and sharp humor into a successful business. Frost embraced the job with the flair of a traveling showman, in contrast to his SoHo colleagues like Luka Sabbat, who became more conventional model-influencers in the process. Because no one had ever seen somebody like Frost before, it was difficult to know when he was poking fun at the very companies who were handing over checks to pay his bills.
When Adidas contacted Frost, he saw an opportunity to establish himself as a serious designer. As a result, the person who had a pencil tattooed on his face pounced on the situation. How serious are you taking this? Frost admits, “I got rid of all my Nikes.” In other words, “I truly wanted to consume Adidas entirely.” He started putting together a large collage of all the sites where Adidas had a presence in his childhood culture. “What aspects of Adidas appeal to me the most?” Frost was perplexed. It was the Beastie Boys, Missy Elliott’s Respect Me collection, and Jeremy Scott, without a doubt, that inspired me most. Then there were the guys who elevated the Superstar to a whole new level of coolness. Frost credits the funkiness to the “Run DMC spirit.” What you just saw wasn’t intended to be there.
There was no guarantee that Adidas would approve of a 5x-sized Superstar as a result of any of these information. According to Frost, when he first approached an Adidas design team with his Michelin-man sneaker concept, they gave him primarily blank glances. So, ‘All right, you want to manufacture this stuff?'” she recalled. Why is it important? Tell us how it relates to the company’s image.”
Adidas’ own backyards were the inspiration for Frost’s design, as he stated to the Adidas design staff. Adidas has two massive Superstar sculptures outside its Portland and Berlin offices. If anything, he was shrinking the Claes Oldenberg-scale sculptures for the Superstuffed rather than expanding it. To which Frost replies, “I had an answer for everything,” even why they should produce denim shorts with Adidas piping down the sides: because they had comparable jeans in the 2004 range of the Y-3 label.”
By working together, they’re now tumbling even further into Frost’s bizarre world of fantasy. A range of clothing, including a sweatsuit wrapped in what appears to be yeti fur, denim jorts, and two new sneakers, will be released on November 17 by the rapper in collaboration with Adidas. The Humanchive, for starters, is a Forum Hi with a human face protruding from it. Jeremy Scott and Walter Van Bierendonck, two of Frost’s musical heroes, are hailed as homages in the video, which has drawn comparisons to Ariana Grande. (The version for friends and family will include a gorgeous wig.) The second is the Benchmate, a baby sneaker for grownups decorated in cartoon creatures designed to imitate the slightly eerie animal mascots that adorn daycares in the projects where he grew up. Benchmate.
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Frost and Erin are a two-person operation, even though he frequently discusses ideas with colleagues like Tim Robinson and Mac Demarco. (Two, if you count Waffle, their newborn daughter.) Taking huge leaps of faith is possible as a result of this. Chief Keef appears in lookbook photos pinned to the moodboard wall, according to Frost. Frost admits that he had a difficult time snagging him. Because the set cost a lot of money, we were terrified. And he hadn’t seen anything of the clothing.” Frost describes an universe in which Chief Keef appeared, saw Frost’s yeti costume for him to wear, and quickly fled. He’d turned down the idea of making a few “regular” pieces of clothes, and now he was going to see whether or not he was correct. According to him, “I think there’s simply so much regular sh*t.” “All I want to see is people give it their all once more. “Put in as much effort as you possibly can.”
Frost’s model, Keef, knew exactly what he was aiming for, which appears to be happening more and more regularly for him. Frost has more signature sneakers to his name than most NBA players, despite the project’s strange spirit. For luxury fashion businesses as well as sportswear giants like Nike, the influencer economy has blown open and TikTok appears to be dictating the agenda, Frost is not just a foreshadowing of things to come—the he’s new status quo. As he turns away from a collage of cartoons and clowns, he replies, “I’m humorous, certainly.” “However, when I’m sincere, I’m sincere.” With that, he dons his top hat and begins putting together his evening ensemble.