Robot Face Backpack Is a $100K One-Off That Mishmashes Kanye West, Elon Musk and Crypto

Due to its provenance, its history and its one-off status, Robot Face is more than a fashion accessory – even if it’s an overprized one. It sits at the intersection between fashion and space exploration, technology and the rise of cryptocurrency, and at the same time, it’s a symbol of our times by being an indirect but intentional tribute to Elon Musk. You may have heard of him: the world’s richest person as of the time of press, Musk sits at the forefront of the electric revolution in the auto industry, thanks to his company Tesla, and of space exploration, through SpaceX. He is also self-titled meme lord and the ultimate troll, a champion for freedom of speech, though far from the fashionable man.

So what does a backpack, Elon, Kanye, and technology have in common? Nothing, you could say at first sight, but you’d be wrong. According to anonymous collective Elon.Space, the answer is “everything.”

This is a tale about expensive luxury goods and how, in this one instance, it’s coming back to the people, with help from the same collective.

Robot Face is the official name of the backpack, and it was created by luxury luggage house Goyard of Paris in 2010, at the behest and with direct input from Kanye West. At the time, Ye was yet to get his foot through in the world of high fashion, but he still had enough pull to get Goyard to design their very first backpack for him. It was unveiled at the 2010 Paris Fashion Week, and Kanye bought it right away. Goyard never made any other like it.

The name Robot Face comes from the intentional decision to make the backpack resemble a robot face. The distinctive elements on it are purely Goyard: the chevron monogram, the hardware, the tan straps and the canvas interior, and tan leather piping. Kanye’s input was on the location of the zippered pockets, which create a smiley robot face, and Kanye’s initial in the bottom right corner.

Because this is the first backpack from Goyard, because it’s a Kanye design and a one-off, its price tag was never publicized. For more than a decade, the backpack was lost, and then it surfaced again last year, selling for $55,000. In August this year, consignor Justin Reed listed it for sale again, this time at almost double the price, $100,000. However, considering all of the above, as well as its lost and found condition, it was still considered a bargain.

Elon.Space bought it right away for 50 ETH, which is almost $100,000 in fiat money. And this is where the next chapter for a luxury fashion product begins, one that will simultaneously see it enter into the digital space and become a regular commodity for the regular people. Elon.Space is a crypto project whose motto is “who controls the memes, controls the universe,” and which draws inspiration from the Elon Musk “meme culture” in order to create “phygitals,” digital art with a physical companion, in a unique mixture of tech, fashion, and the eccentricity of Elon Musk. What a brave new world we’re living in, indeed!

“Elon’s culture of memes is the reason why he is the most accessible figure in the Web3 and NFT space,” the group says of its inspiration. “He loves DOGE, he’s going to space, and he loves trolling. His personality is the quintessential Web3 billionaire.”

As for the backpack, it presented the perfect opportunity for some intersectionality. “Kanye is a creative genius that pairs perfectly with the ethos of Elon.Space,” a spokesperson for the collective tells HypeBeast of the acquisition. “We wanted a product that felt iconic and of a moment that resonates with the project – this was it. As soon as Justin [Reed] posted the product, we knew we had to text him immediately to get it.”

They’re not going to hold on to it for much longer, though. Elon.Space plans to mint an NFT (non-fungible token) of the Kanye West 1/1 Goyard backpack, and 420 users will automatically be enrolled in a raffle, with the winner getting both the NFT and the physical backpack it’s based on. The other 419 users will also get prizes, but of less collectible value: digital assets and physical merchandise. The number of users is not random, of course, and it’s also one that Musk himself would surely appreciate.

The backpack will be crossing over into the digital realm at the end of this month (September 2022), so if you’re an Elon Musk supporter, a Kanye stan, or big into fashion and / or cryptocurrency, keep an eye out for it.