Streetwear a trade perspective

We recently wrote a post entitled “Urban Clothing, Street Wear or Street wear, I'm confused” well there was a nice little article written in a trade magazine recently which shed some light on the subject. The article was basically talking about how boardsports companies are repositioning themselves or not has the case may be to align with the “new” streetwear phenomenon.

Steveb Vogel recently wrote a book entitled Streetwear and in it he defines streetwear has “a combination of attitudes, aesthetics and activities, that binds a group of people together.” He could have said it’s sturban clothing nah that’s far to egotistical of us, but we do try and be all that and more. Vogel goes on to add “it isn’t something that can be analysed from the outside, learned, reproduced, packaged – it’s essential to have been involved in the subculture in the first place.” I think I agree with that in that many high street names do try and cash in on trends and whilst some buy in to it the real core audience would probably prefer to buy “real” brands from shops like sturban clothing.

So now days they are also saying that a customer may not just be interested in skateboarding or surf but will be multi-influenced in to skate, surf, moto-cross, wakeboarding, snow, graffiti, design and maybe above all music. Did we really need a trade magazine to tell us that? Maybe I know I have spoke with many marketing managers who have recently told me that they are trying to associate their brand with Hip Hop or Indy music, sometimes it’s very difficult to see the while picture when you are so close to something.

The real task for any brand though is to retain it’s core credibility whilst growing and selling via fashion or streetwear outlets. That’s always been the case which is why brands pop in and out of fashion or popularity.