Is Streetwear dead? No, but it feels that way.
In which I try to explain why it feels like streetwear and sneaker culture has hit a plateau.
One of my buddies just went to Miami and we had a hilarious, but mostly lamentable conversation about the arc that men’s fashion has taken. Miami might be an especially egregious example given its reputation as a city full of fake flexers, but it speaks to something that we’ve all noticed when it comes to male fashion behavior. So he goes to a few nightclubs around the city, and he can’t help but notice the gaudy, cartoonish attire choices: massive Moncler crests, BALENCIAGA speed sneakers, Yeezy 350s, ESSENTIALS sweat pants, Stone Island badges, etc... It’s hard to pin down why exactly this archetype within male fashion culture is so unsettling and unbearable to witness but I think it’s because it feels like the death of something you love. It’s like seeing the cracks within the Roman Empire starting to form. It’s like watching the child you nurtured and cared for turn into a Supreme-wearing meth addict. It’s soul-crushing. Nothing feels worse than looking at someone you think very little of wearing a brand you like (harsh, but true). This person doesn’t care about how things look, they don’t care about design, and they don’t view fashion as an artistic medium, they look at it as a means to an end. That end is mostly sex, attention, and status. This behavior is something that exists within all of us as animals, but humanity has always been about overcoming our true nature. The tasteless brand whore disgusts us because it reminds us of what we are deep down. And that brings us back to the age-old debate: when we participate in fashion, is it about appreciating it as an art form, is it a medium for self-expression, or simply to signal status?
This recent New York Times article about the men’s luxury re-selling business included an interesting insight into the state of luxury in a Post-Supreme world.
“We’re seeing the streetwear-ification of high-end.” “Which is to say that the category of current men’s luxury isn’t Loro Piana and Kiton, but rather Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga, Chrome Hearts and Rick Owens, rare Nikes, and archival Raf Simons.”
What does “the streetwear-ification of high-end” mean when we’re already experiencing a noticeable decline in streetwear? I think it means that we’re due for a massive re-calibration.
Innovators and early adopters at the beginning of the curve create the trends, the clothes, and the brands we all care about. They’re close to the communities and cultures that spur the conception of brands. It’s fair to say that they genuinely view fashion as an art form and a legitimate form of self-expression. Laggards are the ones that usually ruin it because they’re in it for the wrong reasons, they’re the people I described at the beginning. They latch onto certain brands because they’re chasing after something. They don’t feel much connection to the origins of the brand nor do they care about clothes in general, they just want a piece of the action and a way to signal. (By the way, I do think we’re all signaling to an extent, it’s not black or white.) A brand taken over by laggards mainly serves as an indicator that the brand perception is in a general state of decline. Over-commodification and mass adoption are negatively correlated to the brand as a whole because a lot of the signals we use to determine the value of designer clothing or Veblen goods, in general, are done by looking at the people who wear them and deciding if we want to be associated with them. Stone Island is a great example, once Drake pushed it too hard and the logo acquired too many negative connotations, they suffered for it. They’re still phenomenally made clothes, and I anticipate that they will once again reclaim their seat at the table but they have to re-calibrate the brand. Too many brands in the space with too many consumers in the laggard phase have led to a general feeling of exhaustion in the market.
“Clothes are increasingly detached from scene and subculture, so there are many more style propositions in demand at any given moment.”
Streetwear and sneaker culture has a rich history, with roots in hip-hop, graffiti, skate, basketball, and surf. The oversaturation and relentless product drops mostly motivated by financial growth have contributed to the overall feeling of lifelessness within the market because the chasm between product and heritage has grown ever larger. I don’t blame brands or companies for wanting to make money, in fact, it is necessary if we want the industry to thrive, but it’s true that hyper-commodification has eaten away at the initial allure and excitement. Brands have to stay close to their roots and be true to the subcultures or counter-cultures they originate from because in an effort to please everyone and make it for everyone you make it for no one. Furthermore, a meaningless brand collab hyped up through celebrity placements is equally distasteful in the long run (we can all think of a few, but I won’t name names). The tension between profit and art is where the issue lies, and it’s a delicate balance brands have to strike.
These problems don’t really exist for smaller-scale labels that are actually shifting the culture, independent companies are able to create things for a niche audience and retain the authenticity that comes with the freedom of being small. I am no enemy to profit, but at some point, collectively the sneaker and fashion industry must make a better effort to build stronger bridges between business and culture. Collaborations were never meant to be a long-term business, it was simply a marketing lever that companies could pull when necessary to reinvigorate the brand and explore a different voice or reach new audiences. The issue is when corporations tried to make collaborations into a legitimate revenue stream, the cool went away and the novelty once felt slowly dissipated into the ether.
Part of what makes the recent MSCHF sneaker drops so interesting is that they are essentially making fun of what people really value. The main selling point was the absurdity of the entire thing. It’s a statement about the general decay of sneaker culture, by creating something so ridiculous like the “Big Red Boot” and making a spectacle out of the whole thing through incredible celebrity placements, they were able to achieve what turned out to be the biggest sneaker drop of the year.
“First of all, it’s the homogenization of how everyone dresses in every city across the world,” he said, emphasizing how clothing has become a globally spoken language. “And then it’s the need to flex nonstop and the need to have new clothing all the time, so you can post fit pics and get the dopamine hit and hopefully get some clout off it.”
It goes to show that the value people get from new clothing purchases has dwindled as the industry has grown. The internet and a culture of mass consumerism has tricked people into thinking that they have to wear new shit all the time. We look at people like Bloody Osiris and think 1. That’s normal, and 2. That we need to be constantly upping our wardrobe and buying new things when in reality, the influencer economy has fused with capitalistic mechanisms that fuel our purchasing behavior.
These observations do not mean that streetwear or sneaker culture is dead, I don’t even think that Supreme is dead, like how Highsnobiety suggested. Supreme still makes awesome stuff and they’re the godfathers of this shit. There are lots of brands right now that make incredible clothes with a real point of view connected to a unique subculture or story. However, in the wake of the internet and rapid industry growth, we’ve all just been exposed to way too many companies and products. There are only so many things that can speak to you in a profound way, and now that the apparel and footwear industry has grown to such a massive scale (especially for men), the mechanisms of corporate governance and art have clashed in a way that works against itself in the long-run. By flooding the market with products and endless drops while leveraging “coolness” too haphazardly, it’s opened the doors for art collectives like MSCHF to come in with the most ironic sneaker drop ever made and own the TL, when really shouldn’t someone like Jordan or another sneaker giant have the declarative drop of the year? All this is a long-winded way of saying no, streetwear/sneaker culture is not dead, but it needs some CPR.