Shu-Ki Fita means*
SHOE-MACHINE FIGHTER

It’s popular sneakers deconstructed, and then reassembled to form portraits of intergalactic fighting robots (obviously) that then battle one another in elimination-style tournaments.

 

We call these custom-made robots Shoe-Machines, or “Shu-Ki’s”, and they form the basis of our NFT project, which draws heavily from sneaker culture and Japanese Mecha.

 

Each individual Shu-Ki NFT is a piece of original digital artwork made by the artist Brooklyn N/A. With respect to creation, we don’t implement any programs, nothing about the process is automated, and none of the work is outsourced. It’s just one artist and his computer.

 

In other words, making these NFTs took a lot of time, energy, and attention to detail. We wanted to make Shu-Ki Fita stand out from the NFT crowd as an artistic project that valued good art over greed, originality over shameless copying, and true edition exclusivity over yet another “limited” offering hovering around 10,000.

 

Shu-Ki Fita exists in its own fictional universe, with a rich history, a formal structure, and a cast of supporting characters (built and assembled in the footwear universe) all living and interacting with the Shu-Ki’s inside an intergalactic wrestling/boxing/MMA ecosystem.    

 

Welcome to Shu-Ki Fita. Are you ready to step into battle with us?

* (is likely an awful translation of)

PHYSICAL WORK

Each Mech-Jordan is made by Brooklyn N/A, who deconstructs authentic Air Jordan shoes and then implements his mech-style into the shoe’s structure. All Mech-Jordans are then painted by the artist.

All 3D Shu-Ki sculpts have been digitally modelled by Jess N/A, and then physically printed.

 

DIGITAL WORK

Each Shu-Ki NFT is a high resolution work of digital art (6000 x 6000px) crafted, clipped, cut, pasted, and refined with image-editing software.

 

The process involves deconstructing images of selected shoes and then stitching, stretching, warping, weaving the parts back together to form a coherent portrait of a Shoe-Machine Fighter. 

 

Each artwork is custom made, and artistic decisions are made by the artist for that specific piece. In other words, even though all Shu-Ki’s share common overarching elements, slight deviations in style and structure can be found in certain individual pieces where the artist thought it made for a stronger work of art.   

 

That’s why the # of releases is so low—it’s literally one man making one-of-a-kind things, one-at-a-time.

One of the things we love about the NFT culture was that many NFT collections were comprised of randomized elements, where certain rare characteristics took on special value. 

Our project consists entirely of unique human-made digital works, but we incorporated the random element by randomly  selecting in advance which “ingredients” [apparatus, parts, mechanisms] the artist could work with for each Shu-Ki.

 

Because we are spreadsheet geeks, we went overboard with the randomization selection process creating unnecessarily complicated categories, tiers, options, graphs, distribution curves, etc. But fuck it, it was fun.

 

Think of it like randomly selecting one ingredient from each major food group, and then handing them all over to a chef and saying, “Make something good with this stuff.” 

 

In our case, we went through an extensive pre-selection process, and randomly assigned all of the requisite components that make up a Shu-Ki before starting any of the art.

 

So for example, Shu-Ki XC.91 had to be created using the parts it was randomly assigned, in this case: the Air Jordan XXV for the sole + midsole; the Air Jordan XX and XXV for the upper + quarter; and the Air Jordan XXXVI for the bust + shoulders.

 

Sneakerheads out there will readily identify which sneakers were used for each element (e.g., midsole, upper, etc.). However, you’ll see that the interplay between sneaker parts is rather fluid with often a significant amount of crossover. 

 

As an artist I didn’t want to be handcuffed by overly rigid section delineations: “No! the IV sole cannot be interrupted by the XIV toebox!” So the astute observer will note that some Shu-Ki’s may only exhibit a smaller portion of their assigned sole, or that a designated upper may in fact encroach aggressively into the midsole, or that the selected Upper 1 gets way more real estate than Upper 2, etc.

 

Jamming together puzzle pieces that didn’t fit well seemed too formulaic and against our “art first” core value, so don’t hate us if we bend our own rules at times. 

 

Also, in addition to randomizing the “ingredients” we also randomized a number of other things, like the structure and orientation of the face, its colors, and more.

 

In total, we subjected ten elements to randomization:

 

• SHOE PRINT BACKGROUND 

# of Options: 6

For our initial release, each Shu-Ki NFT will have as its background 1 of 6 different shoe-print patterns selected at random from one of the six Air Jordan shoes worn by Michael Jordan during each of his respective six NBA Championship victories (VI, VII, VIII, XII, XIII, XIV).

 

• SHOE MIRRORING TYPE

# of Options: 2

This element randomized how the Shu-Ki portraits would be constructed. Mirroring refers to how the Shu-Ki’s are made using two shoes rotated 90-degrees and then “mirrored”  across the vertical center line.

 

This created two options depending on the point of origin of the mirroring: the sole side, or the laces side. 

 

• ORIENTATION

# of Options: 2

This was another element that randomized how the Shu-Ki’s would be constructed. Orientation refers to whether the shoes used are either predominantly “toe-down” or “toe-up”.

 

• COMPOSITION

# of Options: 2

We liked the idea of deconstructing all of the shoes and then mixing and matching to form a Shu-Ki, but we also wanted some of them to retain a sort of purity, only drawing from a single shoe for its composition. 

 

So what we did was randomize whether a Shu-Ki would be made entirely from one single shoe (a “SINGLE”) or from a combination of shoes (as many as four) (a “HYBRID”). 

 

• SOLE + MIDSOLE

# of Options: 36

For our initial release, each Shu-Ki was constructed using selected parts drawn randomly from 36 different Air Jordans (I to XXXVI) .

 

In the case of a SINGLE composition (see 4 above), only one shoe was selected and the entire Shu-Ki was constructed using only elements of that shoe.

 

In the case of a HYBRID composition (see 4 above), four shoes were selected, one for each category:

• SOLE + MIDSOLE 

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 1

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 2

• BUST

 

NOTE: for HYBRID’s, the same shoe could be selected more than once.

 

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 1

# of Options: 36

 

For our initial release, each Shu-Ki was constructed using selected parts drawn randomly from 36 different Air Jordans (I to XXXVI) .

 

In the case of a SINGLE composition (see 4 above), only one shoe was selected and the entire Shu-Ki was constructed using only elements of that shoe.

 

In the case of a HYBRID composition (see 4 above), four shoes were selected, one for each category:

• SOLE + MIDSOLE 

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 1

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 2

• BUST

 

For HYBRID’s, two different shoes were selected to make up the UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR. There was no formula or rules about how the two shoes could be used, mixed, or allocated, other than at least one feature of a selected shoe had to be integrated into the artwork. 

 

Some Shu-Ki HYBRID’s seem to mix shoes fairly evenly, while others show a clearly dominant focus on one over the other.  

 

Ultimately the artist endeavored to pull out and highlight each shoe’s distinguishing features, such that sneakerheads should be able to identify all of the shoes used.  

 

NOTE: for HYBRID’s, the same shoe could be selected more than once.

 

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 2

# of Options: 36

 

For our initial release, each Shu-Ki was constructed using selected parts drawn randomly from 36 different Air Jordans (I to XXXVI) .

 

In the case of a SINGLE composition (see 4 above), only one shoe was selected and the entire Shu-Ki was constructed using only elements of that shoe.

 

In the case of a HYBRID composition (see 4 above), four shoes were selected, one for each category:

• SOLE + MIDSOLE 

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 1

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 2

• BUST

 

For HYBRID’s, two different shoes were selected to make up the UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR. There was no formula or rules about how the two shoes could be used, mixed, or allocated, other than at least one feature of a selected shoe had to be integrated into the artwork. 

 

Some Shu-Ki HYBRID’s seem to mix shoes fairly evenly, while others show a clearly dominant focus on one over the other.  

 

Ultimately the artist endeavored to pull out and highlight each shoe’s distinguishing features, such that sneakerheads should be able to identify all of the shoes used.  

 

NOTE: for HYBRID’s, the same shoe could be selected more than once.

 

• BUST

# of Options: 36

 

For our initial release, each Shu-Ki was constructed using selected parts drawn randomly from 36 different Air Jordans (I to XXXVI) .

 

In the case of a SINGLE composition (see 4 above), only one shoe was selected and the entire Shu-Ki was constructed using only elements of that shoe.

 

In the case of a HYBRID composition (see 4 above), four shoes were selected, one for each category:

• SOLE + MIDSOLE 

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 1

• UPPER + QUARTER + TOEBOX + COLLAR 2

• BUST

 

With respect to the construction of the BUST (shoulders/neck), both SINGLE’s and HYBRID’s employ the use of only one type of shoe.

 

BUSTS were constructed in a manner similar to how the faces were constructed, except that mirroring of the BUSTS took their origin at the heel or toe of the shoe. This element, as well as the orientation of shoes were decisions made by the artist and not subject to randomization.

 

NOTE: for HYBRID’s, the same shoe could be selected more than once.

 

When it came time to selecting colors, we wanted to impart a greater importance to rarer colors, so we split our colors into three groups using a tier system (COMMON, RARE, S) where the odds of selecting any tier were inversely proportional to the amount of options inside that tier. In other words, the COMMON tier with a 65% chance of selection had the least amount of color options, whereas the S tier with only a 10% chance of selection had 4x the amount of options, which essentially made any one S tier selection that much rarer.

 

• PRIMARY COLOR

# of Options: 15

With respect to colors we wanted to see some Shu-Ki’s share color palettes, but we also wanted to see some standout with rarer or unique colors. We tried to strike a balance by creating a limited palette of 15 colors that we then sorted into 3 tiers.

 

Since the primary color of most shoes is predominantly black or white, we wanted to respect that so Black and White comprised our first Tier (COMMON).

 

We added the four primary colors to the next tier (RARE) and then eight other colors to the third tier (S).

 

The randomized selection of a Shu-Ki’s primary color was a two-step process that began with randomly determining its tier, and then randomly selecting a color within that tier. 

 

Shu-Ki’s had a 65% chance to draw the COMMON tier, a 25% chance to draw the RARE tier and only a 10% chance to draw the S tier. 

 

We created the tier system in order to relay and retain the importance (or projected rarity) of some colors, in the event those colors turned out to be less rare after the selection process due to probability anomalies.  

 

As with the portrait composition, the artist’s use of colors was not bound by any strict rules or demarcations. Obviously the artist tried to honor the colors selected as best as possible, but in some places the lines slightly blur, and exceptions can be detected.

 

In some cases the line between “primary” and “accent” gets fuzzy, in others, black and/or white are used as further accents even if not selected. Again, decisions were ultimately made to serve the art without egregiously upsetting the overarching program. 

 

NOTE: S Tier contained one “Wildcard” option which essentially gave the artist free 

reign for that color.

 

• ACCENT COLOR

# of Options: 30

 

With respect to colors we wanted to see some Shu-Ki’s share color palettes, but we also wanted to see some standout with rarer or unique colors. We tried to strike a balance by creating a limited palette of 30 colors that we then sorted into 3 tiers.

 

With respect to accent colors, we followed the same general structure as with the primary colors, although we ended up doubling the amount of available color options. 

 

RARE options in the primary category became the COMMON options in the accent. S tier primary options formed the RARE tier for the accents. And 16 new colors were added for the Accent S Tier.

 

We essentially accepted that black and white could be used in a limited fashion as accents for all Shu-Ki’s, in addition to the selected accent colors, however we tried to constrain that, and whenever black or white were selected (S Tier accents) we endeavored to integrate them much more predominantly.

 

The randomized selection of a Shu-Ki’s accent color was a two-step process that began with randomly determining its tier, and then randomly selecting a color within that tier. 

 

Shu-Ki’s had a 65% chance to draw the COMMON tier, a 25% chance to draw the RARE tier and only a 10% chance to draw the S tier. 

 

We created the tier system in order to relay and retain the importance (or projected rarity) of some colors, in the event those colors turned out to be less rare after the selection process due to probability anomalies.  

 

As with the portrait composition, the artist’s use of colors was not bound by any strict rules or demarcations. Obviously the artist tried to honor the colors selected as best as possible, but in some places the lines slightly blur, and exceptions can be detected.

 

In some cases the line between “primary” and “accent” gets fuzzy, in others, black and/or white are used as further accents even if not selected. Again, decisions were ultimately made to serve the art without egregiously upsetting the overarching program. 

 

NOTE: S Tier contained one “Wildcard” option which essentially gave the artist free 

reign for that color. 

 

In total, there are over 80 discrete options available, and with respect to HYBRID’s, there are 1,679,616 possible shoe combination permutations. In short, we’ve been able to create some truly crazy recipes.

 

ABOUT RARITY CALCULATIONS

 

In another exercise of over-complexification, we created a custom rarity calculation scoring system as a way to “rank” the Shu-Ki’s. This was done for at least three reasons: 

 

1. It gave us a way to organize/seed the tournament brackets, which right away created the potential drama for upsets since the Shu-Ki with the highest rarity score is not necessarily favored to do any better in the tournament than the Shu-Ki with the lowest score.

 

1. It seems the NFT community values having this kind of assessment, so we made it; and 

 

1. It gave us another excuse to add more columns and calculations to the spreadsheet. 

 

We spent a decent amount of time adjusting and fine-tuning our rarity calculation. The goal was to create a distribution that made sense, without forcing it into a pre-defined curve. Ultimately we wanted the spread between highest and lowest to be meaningful, and we wanted to avoid scores clustering around one value–what good is a rank if 30 fighters are tied for fifth?

 

Every randomly selected element was assigned a score based on its relative scarcity to the other fighters, and then each of those elements was weighted, because clearly some elements would be considered more valuable than others (e.g., we suspect primary color will be valued much more than orientation). 

 

Finally we added Rarity modifiers to recognize and reward fighters that had to opportunity to access things like any S Tier selections, the Shu-Ki’s overall shoe composition rarity, and the Shu-Ki’s overall color combination (primary + accent) rarity. 

 

The theoretical maximum power score is 2300.

A Shu-Ki’s Serial Number is a unique code that relays a host of information about that Shu-Ki.

 

Here’s how to read it:

Every Shu-Ki has over 30 discrete data-points, ranging from its orientation; its primary and accent colors; its shoe composition and more. These points all go into calculating the fighter’s rarity score.

With respect to the Quantum fingerprint stamp, we took those datapoints and inputted them into a Chord Chart template. Then we took that chart and moved it into image-editing software to create a custom nuclear look.

No two quantum signatures are the same, which is why they act as a Shu-Ki’s fingerprint.

Every Shu-Ki has a dedicated URL that lists the following:

 

1. Shu-Ki’s name
2. Its POWER (RARITY) RANKING score (out of 2300)
3. Its SERIAL NUMBER (S/N)
4. Its MANUFACTURE DATE
5. Its QUANTUM STAMP (unique attribute signature)
6. Its “TEAM” TREE
7. The Shu-Ki’s vital information listing its attributes with respective rarity scores
8. A custom SCROLL containing the Shu-Ki’s QR Code
9. Its tournament history
10. Its collection of Badges/Achievements

Shu-Ki’s fight one another amidst the pomp of a big fight spectacle, much like boxers, MMA fighters, wrestlers, etc.

 

As digital artworks, physical combat is not possible (that we know of) so the next best thing we concluded is that winners would be decided randomly, using a “fight formula” that gives advantage to fighters with higher Rarity scores.

 

We kind of envision it like a “dice battle” where stronger (i.e., rarer) fighters get better/more dice to roll with. 

 

NOTE: As the project evolves we are sure there will be changes, so here’s a disclaimer that everything is subject to change at any time.

Coming soon!

You can imagine that super mechanized shoe-machine fighting must be explosive, brutal, and overall extremely hard on a Shu-Ki’s exterior shell.

 

As a result, post-fight all Round 1 versions get retired due to damage.

 

The winning model however advances to the next round to fight again, and a new Colorway Version (v.2)–randomly selected from a tier of elevated new color options–is released to the blockchain ready for combat.

 

And this process repeats with every round… So, post-fight, all Round 2 versions get retired due to damage, and again, the winning model advances to the next round to fight again, and another new Colorway Version (v.3) is released to the blockchain ready for combat.

And so on and so forth until the tournament is complete.

With each successive victory, Shu-Ki’s gain access to new tiers with increasingly rare and cool options, including color sets.  

 

So at the conclusion of each Shu-Ki fight, a number of events are set in motion:

1. A NEW COLORWAY version of the winner is created and released (i.e., 1 new NFT release) and this version advances into the next round of the tournament
2. Shu-Ki’s stats are updated, along with tournament bracket matchups.

With respect to FIGHTING, we thought it best to focus on Shu-Ki vs. Shu-Ki, as opposed to NFT vs. NFT. We wanted a way to give more than one fan the chance to own a winning fighter model (NFT), but at the same time we didn’t want to dilute things too much.

 

The inaugural tournament Machine Madness 2022 features 64 unique Shu-Ki fighter models, who then get new versions (i.e. colorways) with each new fight. Think of it this way: a Shu-Ki fighter model is like one type of car (say, a Tesla Model S), and its version simply refers to a different paint color. The model moves on through the tournament unchanged but for its color. 

 

Giving more people the opportunity to get involved is what we want our community to be about, but we didn’t want to diminish the importance of owning previous versions of a winning Shu-Ki. 

 

Our solution was the concept of a TEAM, which recognized and acknowledged the succession process.

 

In this way Shu-Ki’s can be thought of a collective and evolving creation. That means showing a Shu-Ki’s previous skins/versions on its File Card Page, and presenting images of a winning Shu-Ki as a gallery of all its previous versions, acknowledging the collective road to success, as opposed to just one single image.

 

Example of a Winning Shu-Ki Succession (i.e., outline of when a Shu-Ki gets a new exterior skin):

 

TOURNAMENT ROUND	WIN or LOSE?	NFT VERSIONS
Round of 64	WIN	LX.80 (v.1) (White/Red)
Round of 32	WIN	NEW! LX.80 (v.2) (Black/Green)
Round of 16	WIN	NEW! LX.80 (v.3) (White/Peach)
Round of 8	WIN	NEW! LX.80 (v.4) (Special Batman Color Set)
FINAL FOUR	LOSE	NEW! LX.80 (v.5)  (Special Tarheel Color Set)
TOTALS	4 WINS	LX.80 model TEAM: 5 different versions

BLOCKCHAIN: ETHEREUM

PLATFORM: OPENSEA

We ARE Shu-Ki Fita

 

In a sense, the seeds of Shu-Ki Fita were planted decades ago as a result of a childhood fascination with sneakers, and especially Air Jordans. Fast forward to 2021 and Brooklyn N/A (the artist) had this idea to somehow implement parts of a deconstructed Air Jordan shoe into one of his physical sculptures. Dissatisfied with his initial sketches of how to actually implement this, he did what he does best in times like this…nothing.

 

Then, after months of gestation, inspiration! This time he went to the computer and experimented with some ideas which eventually resulted in the creation of a digital portrait of a Mecha, using sneakers (and not titanium or another rare alloy normally used in mecha construction) as its molecular DNA. He thought this was cool and instantly wanted to create another using a different shoe. He thought the second one was also cool, and then instantly wanted to create an army of them.

 

Only after Brooklyn N/A had made a dozen or so that he approached Jess N/A with the idea to turn this into a cool NFT project.

 

ABOUT Jess N/A and Brooklyn N/A 

 

Jess N/A and Brooklyn N/A worked together at an international boutique design/build firm where they worked in all facets of the company, running wildly custom and luxurious projects around the world. Completing impossible, mind-blowing projects became their specialty, and the experienced taught them how to make any dream a reality.

 

The two took the company to new heights and Brooklyn N/A made a promise to himself to one day partner with Jess N/A on a worthy project. 

 

Jess N/A graduated with an Architectural degree and worked as a designer and project manager in the luxury firm for 4 years before leaving to become COO of another custom-build company. A longtime sneakerhead and gearhead, Jess N/A brings incredible graphic design skill and acumen to the project.

 

Brooklyn N/A graduated with a Law degree and Sommelier diploma and worked as VP in the luxury firm for 8 years before leaving. A lifelong artist, Brooklyn N/A brings the art and backend spreadsheet design to the project.