gunverified
Over a million guns are listed online without background checks each year, creating a deadly loophole. To prove the absurdity of this, StockX will team up with ChangeTheRef to stage the first ever unverified category on their site: Firearms.
To hint at a new drop, we send Sneaker YouTubers and resale TikTokers cryptic PR packages of a simple note sent in an empty holster.
As word spreads across the web, hype channels and audiences alike start speculating, with theories floating around about its legitimacy.
Days later, StockX formally announces it’s expanding into guns w/o background checks, calling it a “faster, easier, and more profitable” market than current verified shoe/collectible resell.
OOH placements go live nationwide, amplifying the shock and igniting conversation around online loopholes.
On drop day, the StockX site populates with a full catalog of firearms. Users can scroll, compare, and “Preorder.”
Before they can proceed with the preorder, they’re taken to a page with a verbal agreement acknowledging they understand the terms and conditions.
Those who still tried to complete the purchase become the face of our OOH as a blurred, anonymized collage used to reveal our partnership with ChangeTheRef and show just how often people attempt to bypass background checks.
ChangeTheRef will release a wave of bold social posts calling out the background-check loophole exposed by our stunt.
Youth activist voices like David Hogg, X González, and Aalayah Eastmond pick them up, reacting to the drop, explaining the loophole in their own words, and pushing their audiences deeper into the issue.
Then, once the conversation has momentum, we drive it toward action with a petition. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act is the bill that would finally close the background-check loophole, but it’s stalled in committee.
So we organize a protest to push it forward, and supply people with the shoes to march in.
Lastly, StockX will actually drop protest merch, with every dollar going to ChangeTheRef’s work to end gun violence. Together, StockX and ChangeTheRef turned resale culture into a call for change.
GUNVERIFIED
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GUNVERIFIED 🔫
AD: Adri Jones & Nathalie Lopez