*updated 4/9/2020

If you loathe your personality, if you can’t stand to look in the mirror, then maybe dressing in cool trendy clothing can boost your confidence! Or at the very least, distract you enough from your problems so you stop thinking about them all the time.

Streetwear is the latest outlet for self-conscious teenagers to try and “be themselves”… but then seize every opportunity to bully one other for not wearing the right clothes. To cry out “this brand is lame!” or “this isn’t streetwear!” (as if they hold any sort of legitimacy to make that kind of claim) while preaching that streetwear is all about self-expression, wearing whatever you want is key.

But streetwear isn’t dead. It’s far from it. If anything, it’s on the verge of finally becoming what it should have been in the first place.

A Brief History of Streetwear

Streetwear’s roots trace back to late 80’s New York – heavily intertwined with b-boying and hip-hop culture. Bright colors, bold branding, and statement pieces dominated the landscape. Image was everything. If you wanted respect, you had to look the part first.

Now, this was especially relevant for kids in the ghetto. Imagine you’re living in a run-down apartment living off grits and instant macaroni – you don’t want to be judged off that. You don’t want to be that kid.

Your clothing provided an escape: no matter what your situation was like, if your fit was on point, you earned a level of respect through that alone.

This led to an unhealthy obsession with luxury brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent. These epitomized the upper class lifestyle (aka would earn you the most clout), but were practically impossible to get. You can bet, if a rapper made it big, you’d find them drenched in Polo.

My life got no better, same damn ‘Lo sweater

So now you’ve got a suburban culture with a huge interest in luxury brands, full of kids looking up to the stars who broke out of the ghetto, but left unable to afford the pieces that their idols were rocking.

Enter: 90’s Streetwear Brands

Brands like Stussy, Freshjive, FUBU, and Staple sought to fill this void – creating their own underground brands that emulated this feel of effortless luxury cool, while giving a personal, home-grown vibe to it. For Us, By Us.

But how was this successful? The main component of what makes luxury what it is… is its inaccessibility to the layman.

Early streetwear hit this idea of inaccessibility out of pure necessity. Though, it was driven not by price this time, but by availability: Shirts were made in limited quantities because of costs. There were no mass distribution channels; instead, merchandise was often sold out of car trunks in pockets of the city. Which then was only disseminated through friends and word of mouth.

This all culminated into similar feelings of exclusivity – being a part of something cool that not everyone was in on.

Oh how times have changed.

The Modern Marketplace

We now have access to a global marketplace. Brands are popping up and dying faster than we can keep count. We can purchase from brands across the world from our fingertips. We can express ourselves through anything imaginable. Yet, we still gravitate towards well-known “premium” brands. And those premium brands command premium prices.

And it’s not because of their quality.

The streetwear industry isn’t akin to that of the cell phone industry for example, where there’s a consistent, objective relationship between price and value. Often it’s not any tangible value in terms of quality or design, but in the intangible – the perceived value of the name brand itself.

Brand perception plays a role in every industry involved with marketing (Apple is a prime example), but streetwear is an oddity in its extremity – brand perception is of absolute importance; and often that perception seems indestructible. The streetwear fan base is one of the most die-hard, loyal ones out there.

A streetwear brand can offer vapid designs, low quality fabric, mediocre construction, embarrassing customer service, and still sell out of all of their merchandise. But if that same brand contracts with Zumiez, then the company loses its appeal?

Let’s be real, don’t you wanna shop here?

Why? Well, the answers lie in the early history of streetwear.

It’s building off the same obsession with exclusivity and brand recognition that drove consumer mindsets back in the day. We prefer to identify with brands that are recognizable and respected, not ones that we feel reflect our personal identity. Rather, we look for brands that are a reflection of who we want to be perceived as.

Bape x Dum Dums (near deadstock)

Streetwear is dressing for status and self-validation. It’s less a matter of quality, and more of hype and recognition. Less a means of self-expression, but of conformity and exclusivity.

This issue isn’t limited to streetwear, it’s just easily observable with it. Nor is it solely an issue with corporations and big name brands; after all, they’re just businesses selling what sells. It’s an internal issue of the heart for us as consumers. We focus more on external validation to tell us who we are, instead of finding our own identity and expressing that ourselves.

A Look Towards the Future

If we truly believe that streetwear is all about self-expression, it should reflect in the environment that we’re cultivating. And that all starts with us.

Just because something isn’t trending anymore doesn’t mean it’s invalid. Each brand, each trend, each aesthetic, has something to offer and can potentially resonate with someone. We need to move away from this dichotomy of right and wrong determined solely by relevance. And instead, focus more on probing into our identities as people and exploring how we can creatively express that.

We can return to a simpler time… when we wore something just “because I like it.”

But none of that is possible if we don’t know what we like. If our tastes are constantly changing based off of what’s hot in the market right now. Which is indicative of a much deeper identity crisis than it may lead on. But that’s for another time.

Next time you wanna buy something, take a moment to really think about what’s driving that purchase. Identify with brands, yes, but first you’ve gotta know your identity.