MSCHF and Tiffany & Co. Teamed Up To Make Participation Trophies

MSCHF, the Brooklyn-based art miscreants known for subversive projects that toy with visual art and pop culture, are back with their latest project to make the capital-A art world raise its eyebrows. This time, their focus isn’t Mariah Carey trading cards or lawsuit-inducing Lil Nas X Satan shoes, but participation trophies made by Tiffany & Co., to make us all feel like winners.

In addition to being perhaps the world’s most recognizable jewelry brand, Tiffany & Co. is responsible for creating trophies for many of the world’s major sporting events. The Tiffany x MSCHF Participation Trophy is a limited series of 100 participation trophies inspired by the nostalgia of participation trophies — which conservatives love to hate, using the concept as ammunition to define Millennials as coddled and useless.

Each trophy, which takes four months and 34 hours of labor to make at Tiffany’s famed workshop in Cumberland, Rhode Island, is an ode to many sports at once, with a sterling silver figure on a horse holding a tennis racket, kicking a soccer ball, while the horse prances over a basketball. It uses Vermont white marble and ceramic-coated stainless-steel and sits on a signature Tiffany blue staff with the words “MSCHF x Tiffany Participant” engraved on the base.

Though MSCHF did actually work with Tiffany on this project, they usually prefer to go rogue, famously creating the Lil Nas X Satan shoes without the permission of the juggernaut Nike, which got them into legal trouble but more importantly, gave them a free national press run. They also got in trouble earlier this month with Vans, who sued the art collective after they created the trippy silhouette “Wavy Baby” sneaker with Tyga that closely resembles Vans’ Old Skool silhouette. (TBH, I like these more than Vans’ original shoe.)

MSCHF’s other kitschy art pranks include Axe No. 5, which combined Axe Body Spray and Chanel No. 5., and This Foot Does Not Exist, a bot that texts you computer-generated photographs of feet that do not exist. Tiffany & Co. participation trophies are their 76th project. You can scroll through the rest of them at mschf.xyz.

If you want to score your own participation trophy (after all, we are all participants of Life), mark your calendar for May 2. The limited series of 100 trophies will be available on ultimateparticipationtrophy.com at 11 AM EST.