The Trumpification of Melania’s NFTs
Plus: The NBA logo was reimagined as a bunch of quilts
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Hello, in this week’s issue…
The Trumpification of Melania’s NFTs
The NBA logo was reimagined as a bunch of quilts
An NFT of “Fearless Girl”? It’s more likely than you think
Famous first dogs got statues on the National Mall to advertise a dog food brand
The Trumpification of Melania’s NFTs
Former first lady Melania Trump’s NFT offering is expanding, and it’s starting to look a lot more Trumpy.
On Monday, she launched her third NFT release, The POTUS TRUMP NFT Collection, featuring 10,000 videos of rotating cards. The five designs come in platinum and gold editions and show moments from her husband’s presidency, like their visit to Mount Rushmore in 2020.
The collection is being sold at a new site, usamemorabilia.com, which Trump’s office says will be an “expansion” of her NFT platform that will sell items commemorating U.S. history, holidays, monuments, and landmarks. Just three releases in, and we’re already getting our first Melania NFT brand extension.
Trump’s first two NFT sales included watercolors by French artist Marc-Antoine Coulon and were pure Melania: Francophile and fashion. This collection, though, caters aesthetically to MAGA Nation, with NFTs that look like novelty Trump coins. You could imagine the rotating cards airing with a toll-free number during commercial breaks on Fox News, squeezed between Charlie Kirk’s pain relief supplement ads and the MyPillow Guy. Based on the description of Trump’s new site, it sounds like that’s the audience these forthcoming NFTs are designed to cater to.
In this sale, buyers can’t choose which NFT they get, and instead get a design at random. The most common card has no photo of Trump and just says “Liberty,” but the Charizard of the collection is “45 First Lady,” with 500 minted in gold and 250 in platinum. The card shows the Trumps in matching tuxes for their final White House Christmas card.
By Tuesday night, more than 40% of the collection was still available, suggesting again that demand for Trump’s NFTs is at least initially soft.
The NBA logo was reimagined as a bunch of quilts
Artist Hank Willis Thomas used jerseys of NBA legends to reimagine the league’s logo for a pop-up exhibition this weekend in Cleveland, which hosted the NBA All-Star game.
The New Black Aesthetic is named for Trey Ellis’ 1989 essay and included six quilts of players Jerry West (whose image the red, white, and blue NBA logo is based off), Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Bill Russel.
The NBA logo was designed in 1969 by MLB logo designer Alan Siegel, and there’s been calls from some fans and players to redo it, including Kyrie Irving, who suggested last year it should be based on Bryant. “Black kings built the league,” Irving wrote on Instagram. Thomas’ quilts show what the silhouette of a modern logo might look like, and there could be dunking.
The quilts were inspired by African-American quilt tradition from the South and meant to explore the power of sports, logos, and icons on the American psyche, according to a statement. “The NBA and sports across the world can unite across race and class,” Thomas said on Instagram.
An NFT of “Fearless Girl”? It’s more likely than you think
On International Women’s Day on March 8, “Fearless Girl” sculptor Kristen Visbal is selling NFTs inspired by the statue to pay for her bills in a legal battle with the asset management company that commissioned the statue.
Visbal agreed to terms for joint ownership of “Fearless Girl” with State Street Global Advisors that allowed her to sell replicas, but in 2019, the firm sued over replicas they said violated the deal.
Visbal told Hypebeast she’s incurred millions, and the NFT sale — which will also also include physical statues — will cover legal fees and “free ‘Fearless Girl’ from the physical world.”
Famous first dogs got statues on the National Mall to advertise a dog food brand
Former first dogs Fido Lincoln, Bo Obama, and Pushinka Kennedy got life-sized statues placed in front of the Lincoln Monument on Monday by a direct-to-consumer dog food brand for Presidents Day.
The 3-D printed faux bronze statues were made by Crux Scenica, a Richmond, Va., production company, and the team that created them included Margaret Rolicki, a fabricator for the heavy metal band GWAR. The statues were placed by Jinx, and the production company said they’ll be donated to a local shelter.
Fun fact: Pushinka was a daughter of Strelka, one of the first dogs to go to space, and she was a gift to the Kennedys from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Keep it
Maybe skip rainbow washing your logo this Pride?
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) put out a poster and shirt line of Arizona’s outdoor wonders like the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell, and I wrote about why Democrats turn to the great outdoors for merch in last week’s newsletter. You can read the full issue here. — Hunter
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