Why Some Brands Don’t Want To Be Labeled As ‘Streetwear’

People tend to like things that make money. If you buy into this idea, you can understand quite a lot about the stock market, for example, or how wealthy villains in ‘80s teen movies still managed to have friends, or why a segment of the population thinks Donald Trump makes a perfectly suitable President, tax returns be damned. But, like all sweeping generalizations, there are plenty of outliers that contradict this hypothesis. We even have one of our very own in the fashion industry: streetwear, a $75 billion segment of the apparel market that many insiders still hate. Streetwear has evolved into a somewhat hard-to-define category; even the streetwear veterans and experts who gathered for a panel discussion on the topic at ComplexCon this past November didn’t have a concise, digestible way to convey what it means exactly. But, broadly speaking, it refers to clothing brands that are rooted in urban, youth culture. It’s connected to skateboarding, hip-hop, and surfing. Streetwear is the relatively affordable provenance of sneakers, hoodies, and T-shirts. It’s traditionally less about suits and ties than it is about sweats and caps. Read more at Complex.