Introduction
The success of Supreme, and streetwear more broadly, makes sense when you look at how fashion and culture are changing. From one end to another, clothes are becoming less formal and more casual and drawing inspiration from sports, driving the popularity of items such as sneakers and sweatshirts. Hip-hop has grown from a genre of the miscreants into the dominant musical form in the US, surpassing rock and jazz. Millennials and Gen Z represent a large portion of the fashion consumers pie chart and continue to want to be authenticated and approved by society. Add in skate influences and a lot of attitude, and the product is streetwear. “Though people still talk about it as a niche, upstart movement, its signatures—casual clothes like hoodies and tees, graphic logos that seem made for the Instagram age, a fixation on sneakers, ties to hip-hop, and a shared sense of culture—line up neatly with those bigger shifts in the way younger generations of shoppers live and dress.”1
Literature review
The Supreme NY brand is revolved around the industries of “fashion and music, skateboarding, and art”2. A student at Ryerson University performed a research study where he explored streetwear subculture and Supreme NY ’s history, influence, and position within the market in a European context. This study was in fact the basis of the study that was organized and is laid out in this proposal. The study interviewed shop owners, designers, and fashion icons in various countries in Europe along with New York to hear out their perceptions of Supreme NY, its progress thus far, and the evolution of streetwear since the late 1980s. The study showed that that “study respondents were significantly influenced by emerging music and skateboard culture in New York City during the 1980s and 1990s”2. This growth of new brands and labels dropping and the increase in collabs between brands like Snoopy and Vans has caused online purchases and auctions to fly off the charts as compared to what goes on in the stores no matter how many customers try to grab any branded article of clothing. This goes to show that streetwear is just what online markets need to up their rebate and get an edge in selling apparel, as it seems to have a heavier presence online than on strips or malls due to the rising rate of online shopping and editorials written.
After taking several interviews and asking different people, it was concluded that the term streetwear did not have a concrete definition and these responses that the interviewees were giving suggested that more than apparel, streetwear is a medium of social interactions and conversation starter and indicates a style of thinking instead of a style of clothes. The question that it comes down to is whether this increased interest and popularity in streetwear is due to a change in lifestyle, affordability, or simply trend. The researchers believe that it is a combination of all three that the increased patronage of streetwear should be accounted for.
Proposed Methods
Streetwear is a term best understood by the range of folks between their teenage and young adult years. Because it is so strongly influenced in the entertainment and sports industry, an increasing amount of folks continue to “join the hype” and gain a perception about this popular interest in clothing. For this specific research, stratified sampling would be performed to gain a group of participants to partake in the survey. Stratified sampling is a type of probability sampling where a population is divided into different groups (known as strata) based off of a certain shared quality within the group. After these divisions have been made, random sampling is performed to represent the entire strata in the research study.
The different groups that would be sampled for this study would be the attendees at a college rager, skaters in a skate park, a stand at an Astroworld concert, and some famous YouTube celebrities. A total of twenty-five people from each group would be surveyed, adding up to a total of 100 participants. Each person would be taken aside and asked whether or not they would be willing to anonymously answer five questions as part of a research study. Their incentive would be a $25 Visa gift card (an incentive would more likely induce honest answers). Once the participant chooses to partake in the survey, they would be asked: 1) What do you define as streetwear? 2) How do you keep up with the newest fashion in the streetwear industry? 3) How important are materialistic things to you? 4) How have you benefited in investing in such expensive products? and 5) Do you consider yourself to be part of the “hype”?
The first question would clarify whether or not the participant knows what the term “streetwear” means and based off of that answer, the researcher would be able to determine how important this topic is to the participant. The second question would answer the bulk of the research study as it would directly entail the sources of these fashion trends. The third question would have the participant factor in financial furnishings and what they prioritize in life. The fourth question, a continuum of the third question, would also provide the study about information buying retail versus buying resale and how that plays out. The last question would serve as a rank of ego and acceptance the participant feels and leave them with some food-for-thought because there is no definite line as to when one can be considered part of the “hype”.
Analysis Plan
Once these questions have been answered by all 100 participants, the results will be compared between all four groups. The definitions of streetwear are expected to be around the same for all four groups because the same people expected to “turn-up” at a college party would also be standing in the mosh pit of a hip-hop/rap concert. In addition, these are people of the same age group and because they are tied through social media and have a very strong connection with it, it is not surprising that their definition would be quite similar. This leads us to find the relationship between the answers to the second question; it could be inferred that college students and the concert ticket-holders would gain their streetwear inspiration from platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, hypebeast.com, and by merely watching shows and celebrities on sit-down intercoms. On the other hand, the celebrities on YouTube and the skater boys would answer saying that they shop for themselves and create their outfits themselves. They would go thrift-shopping or pick out brands that represent their culture. One could come to the conclusion from the different answers of the second question that the Youtubers and the skaters are the “trend-setters” and are simply creating a lifestyle, which the college party-goers and ravers like to hop on to as they idealize this culture. In fact, the streetwear subculture terms these people “posers” which is defined as “someone who tries to fit in to a profile they aren't part of.” This is an instance where one could make the mistake of distinguishing causality and correlation which would lead to limitations, as discussed in the next section.
The third question and fourth questions about materialism and expenses would also differ between the groups. One can assume that the celebrities would not have to worry about expenses as much as those who skate merely because they are earning are a large quantity of money by brand integrating and individual merchandising. They could easily spend money at stores like Loius Vuitton and Gucci or shop online off Supreme and OffWhite and not have to worry about what their bank account will look like after the purchase. College students and other young adults cannot always afford to spend so thriftly and therefore must think twice before copping the Nike Air Fear of God 1s or the newest Air Jordan 1s.
The fifth and final question will bring awareness to the participant about whether or not their interest or disinterest in streetwear or top-brands is worth it and whether it has gotten them popularity points or raised their status in any social group. It may make them reassess what it means to hop on the “kulture” and why it matters if no one else will let them to be a part of it. Analyzing the responses to these questions and tallying up to see which the most common responses within each group is would be quite beneficial in answering the question what the world of streetwear is dependent on. Not to mention, the researchers’ hypothesis may just be accurate and it may be all three factors that equally contribute to the growing interest in such brands.
Limitations
The potential roadblocks that this research could come across involves getting a hold of a sufficient number of participants and deducing quantitative values from the short surveys. It is possible that in these environments that the research needs to be performed in that the people would not be open to answering questions as they are trying to enjoy themselves or get their money’s worth; in addition, celebrities would prove to be quite difficult to get in contact with and to answer the survey questions. The second issue would be adding up similarities in answers and putting a numerical value to come to a conclusion. The researchers would also have to keep in mind that involving oneself in these types of crowds does not cause one to completely abandon their priorities and spend every penny in their savings on top-of-the-art clothing and accessories. That of course, is an extreme-case scenario, but the matter of fact is that it the two situations are correlated not causational.
Conclusion
The question the research study was meant to answer was whether the increased interest and popularity in streetwear is due to a change in lifestyle, affordability, or simply a trend? The five questions asked to the four different types of crowds would show how lifestyle and inadvertently financial status affects one’s interest in taking upon the idea of following the streetwear fashion. Answering this question would be beneficial to the brand producers as they would be able to advertise that platform that is most popular, whether it is word-of-mouth, social media, or the pop culture and ultimately showcase their advertisements of their new products to people who are interested.