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Here’s what’s poppin right now!

HOT LINKS:

• Another banger collab between PSG and x Jumpman (Jordan 1’s).

• Would you buy a chore coat made from vintage Moroccan blankets?

• Street style in NYC during the 80s.

• There’s an online community for Negroni lovers. NEGRONI SEASON.

• Coffee-themed sneakers, anyone?

• Another young American headed to Europe. This time it’s AS Roma. Huge for US Soccer.

Digging a little deeper…

The best collab I’ve seen a while.

One of my favorite brands right now is Notre—a clothing store in Chicago. They teamed up with Nike to drop a capsule collection centered around their roots of growing up the Midwest. Under the mantra of Made in the USA, they cleared an old warehouse out and built a set design as a nod to the blue collar folks.

What makes a collab like this so special is that digs deeper than the generic “hey, we made a t-shirt together!” partnerships. There’s soul to it. You’re invited into the story a bit. I’m here for it!

2021 Trends Report.

My pal Philip Jackson runs an awesome community called Future Commerce, a media research startup that covers consumer trends across culture and tech, helping eCommerce businesses.

They just released a 70-page report that you should 100% level-up and read. Click their link and download that. Good weekend reading if you wanna be dialed in to what’s happening culturally.

Future Commerce @futurecommerce

[NEW REPORT] Today we launch our annual report on the cultural, technological, and consumer trends that are affecting us and the world we live in. We believe this report is valuable and worth your time. 70 Pages. 10 Trends. 1 Future. Get the report 👉futurecommerce.fm/vision

January 28th 2021

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A few more thoughts on streetwear vs. Gorpcore.

This week, I wrote about the future of menswear, and how I think Gorpcore will be the next style genre to go mainstream this decade. Some folks thought I was suggesting that means streetwear is just gonna die.

That’s not what I’m saying. Let me add context…

Designer Virgil Abloh has been known for saying things like “streetwear’s gonna die,” that it’s just a matter of time. Meanwhile, Bobby Hundreds (OG streetwear legend from The Hundreds store in LA) argues the opposite, saying that streetwear and its place as a fashion muse will live on forever. He’s vocal about this in his bestselling book, This is Not a T-Shirt (highly recommend reading it btw!).

But it’s important to distinguish their definitions of streetwear. First, let’s look at streetwear in 3 cycles.

If I had to condense decades of style into a few buckets, here’s how I’d do it:

The Cycles of Streetwear

1. Streetwear as Community: This is synonymous with brands like Supreme and The Hundreds. They had a sense of purity and innocence to them early on. They existed because of their communities. Community wasn’t a strategy, it was what came natural. People > product. The community is what drove the hype.

2. Streetwear as a Commodity: The next iteration on streetwear. Streetwear became a commodity everyone had to have. You saw retail stores selling skate and streetwear commercially. What began as an underground movement turned into wide distribution of streetwear. This is where brands like Diamond Supply Co signed licensing agreements to be sold at Tilly’s, Zumiez, etc.

3. Streetwear as a Luxury: This is where brands like KITH, Madhappy, and StockX sit. When Supreme is valued as a $Billion dollar brand, KITH sells out of BMWs in minutes, StockX has its own stock market for sneakers, streetwear becomes a luxury because it’s a scarcity. Scarcity means everyone has to have it because they know they can’t. That’s what drove lines out the door. Luxury consumers became the new “community.”

What does this mean?!

I think Virgil is alluding to when he says streetwear is gonna die is points #2 and #3, while Bobby is referring to #1 when he says streetwear will live on.

I agree with both. The brands that focus on building communities first will win in the long run. The brands that try to catch a wave, when they know it’s going to die, will fade with the evolving trends.

Hope that’s helpful. Have a chill weekend! xx