At one point in the novel Catcher In The Rye , protagonist Holden Caulfield recalled seeing a garish Christmas display at New York’s Radio City Music Hall with actors singing while carrying crucifixes around the stage.
Faced with this, he could only say , “Old Jesus probably would’ve puked if He could see it.”
While I don’t pretend to speak for Jesus, it’s hard not to consider the idea of selling off shoes bearing His iconography for an exorbitant price similarly distasteful.
And just in case anybody wants to label me a “hater” for saying this, it appears that the makers of the actual shoes matching this description feel similarly.
So what exactly are ‘Jesus Shoes?’
As The Daily Mail reported , they’re the creation of a Brooklyn-based firm called MSCHF, who made some “religious” modifications to Nike Air Max 97s.
And make no mistake, they went all-out with this design.
In addition to the large crucifix, they added a “blood drop” to the shoe’s tongue to represent the blood of Christ and had them blessed by a priest.
The defining feature of the shoes, however, is the holy water they added into the transparent soles and colored to make the water more visible.
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The holy water was apparently sourced directly from the Jordan River.
Based on a report from National Geographic , however, this likely means the water has been contaminated with sewage, as that’s a serious and sad reality facing the actual river.
The sneaker also features a Bible notation referring to Matthew 14:25, “Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.”
This was likely added because the shoes technically let wearers walk on water.
I guess it would have been too sad an irony to go with Jesus’s words in Matthew 19:21, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
Less than 24 pairs of the shoes were made and they retailed for $3,000. Despite this steep cost, they sold out within minutes.
If the design brings to mind Jesus’ famous rebuke of the money changers in the temple, however, that apparently isn’t lost on the shoe’s designers.
As The Daily Mail reported , MSCHF had created the sneakers to mock the “absurdity of collab culture.”
Is that absurdity than heightened by the fact that enough people were willing to immediately shell out $3,000 to buy up the entire stock?
h/t: The Daily Mail
