Otis Magazine: The Rise and Possible Fall of the “Big Men Don’t Sell Shoes” Myth 

According to an adage that's as old as the NBA itself, big men don't move merchandise. And no one really knows why. Maybe it’s that (generally smaller) guards simply have a more relatable game than big men, or maybe it’s because big men, by their nature, have traditionally been stuck with chunky, heavy calf-squeezers. Or maybe it’s not actually true at all, and Joel Embiid will be the one to bust that myth once and for all. This week in Otis Magazine, Luke Winkie unpacks the rise and possible fall of the idea that big men don’t sell shoes. 

What’s the Future of Experiential Art?

Artsy goes deep this week on what experiential art — both in-person and virtual — will look like in the post-pandemic universe, pegged around Superblue, a 50,000 square foot art center opened by Pace in Miami. 

Notably, the center’s revenue structure is based largely around ticket sales and commissioned works, not art sales, which Pace CEO Marc Glimcher hopes will allow artists more direct interaction with the public than the traditional gallery model historically has. 

Superblue’s programming will include shows from the likes of JR and Nick Cave to start, and the Pace team tells Artsy they hope the space will attract “a much wider cross section of people who have up until now been interested in the arts, but less likely to go to a gallery.” 

Of Interest

• You can now wear Rashid Johnson’s Anxious Man series as jewelry. 

• Where does a work of art belong?

• All the comics that might have inspired Matt Reeves’ The Batman movie. 

• Where to see street artist Invader’s massive new installation. 

• The artists reinventing ASCII art for 2020. 

• The biggest superhero shakeups coming to comics this fall. 

• How Swiss art star Pipilotti Rist took video art into the mainstream.

• Legendary club Berghain is now, temporarily, an art museum. 

News From the Otis Collection

• Otis gets a mention in this Bloomberg story about fractional investing. 

• Travis Scott will be the first celebrity since Michael Jordan to have a McDonald’s meal named in his honor. 

• This year’s lineup for beloved street art show Beyond the Streets will include Felipe Pantone. 

• An official “Freddy Krueger” Air Max 95 is slated for Halloween this year. 

• Takashi Murakami’s smiling Mount Fuji can be seen on the cover of Vogue Japan.