Networking - to foster links between individuals around a given cause.
Aim: To inform people on how fashion and trendsetting is taking over the marketplace and how it is effecting the economy.
This is a google image of the "Bread and Roses" Strike. Source:http://chawedrosin.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/bread-and-roses-strike.jpg
In 1912, the textile workers of Lawrence, Massachusetts expressed their feelings and rage in one of the most famous strikes in history, the Bread and Roses strike. This strike represented one of the earlier victories in our history because it brang success and hope to the society. Their success in the strike brought results such as improve working conditions. This not only worked for them but also for mill workers along the east coast. This means hope for other people out in the world and that they can use the same tactics to fight for what they want, what they deserve.
This is a google image of Joe Hill- Source: http://www.store.iww.org/images/joehill.jpg Joe Hill was in and around the same time of the Bread and Roses strike. However, before that happened, he joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) movement in 1910. He was a song writer and also created huge impacts on the society and the world and a protestor. He wrote songs that included stuff about differences in culture and the working class. His songs spread all over the place and gave an example to protestors in the future to do the same, the same influence and power by music. People can follow his ideas and like himself, succeed in bringing forth protestors to what they have to do.
The Constitution protect our rights to dissent by giving us amendments and particulary the first amendment. The first amendment is the freedom of speech, not neccessarily enabling to say what you want and "think" what's right, but ideas and expressions that you want to share but limited to a certain degree. The first amendment gives the freedom of speech, press, relgion, etc but doesn't mean that you can say anything you want. You can't say exactly anything you want and the Consitiution states that, making things more complexed. You can't say things that may pose a threat to the government, say things that may cause violent and disrupt the civilized/society. Those are the limits of the Constitution.
The sneaker culture has over the years, affected the market economy tremendously. For teenagers, sneakers are among the highest interests and the most wanted item in fashion. The reason is simple. I notice that when people/teenagers buy sneakers, they also buy additional clothes/accessories to go with it. They buy a outfit along with the sneaker so they could look "fly," meaning attractive. To be honest, I use to be the same way, buy every single color to match every pair of sneakers, but I realize it doesn't matter if you match or not. I still wear a matching outfit every once in a while but it's not necessary because you still look just as good. In my opinion, it's all about brand. Brand is the most important thing in teenagers as well as people who are interested in fashion's life. Just the name of a certain clothing or sneaker makes all the difference in the world. Believe it or not, but it's true because they rather buy brand name clothings even if it's 4 times the price. Anyways, in this post I am trying to explain how the sneaker economy has taken over the market in many ways. I notice new stores/old stores are "fighting" to get sneakers accounts to get whole sale sneakers of the most desired recent sneakers. For example, the latest jordan packages, also known as countdown packages are sold out almost immediately and stores noticing it's good profit will kill to get that account. If I'm not wrong, I'm pretty sure you need a urban account to have those in your hands. Certain other accounts are quickstrike and NikeSB account. These are all exclusive accounts that are pretty hard to get. To my knowledge, I heard that in order to get a NikeSB account, you must first open and keep a skateboarding store open for atleast 2 years. The sneaker culture is growing and still going strong even during the recession. People are willing to pay MONEY for exclusive sneakers that are no longer available in sneakers. England created the first pair of sneakers in the 1860's. Of course their sneakers were very basic since it was the first concept. As the years went by, sneakers traveled around the world and was manufactured everywhere. People added style and design to them as they became for advance, comfortable and some even rare. Heres' a little background information on the history of sneakers: http://www.economy-point.org/s/sneaker.html
As I listed earlier, one of my contacts is Issforums.com, also known as Solecollector.com/forums. This site is mainly controlled by the youth because at this age is usually when "sneakerheads" arise. Teenager's interest in fashion is enormous, therefore affecting the marketplace tremendously. You may not notice this but this has a major effect on our economy because even when people such as the adults and older shoppers don't go shopping or spend money, the people in the youth culture will. If you take a look inside the solecollector forums, you will realize what I'm talking about. We are obviously in recession and people on Iss, as you can see, are still selling/buying sneakers. Consuming is my main point because of the loss jobs/careers and a portion or maybe even whole part of family's income is gone. However, we can see on Iss that people are not only spending but relatively high and expensive for one pair of sneakers. I, myself have been on Iss for years and notice even when times are bad, which in this few years is the first time, the prices doesn't really change, in fact, it may get higher. Thinking about spending from $100-1000's of dollars on just one pair of sneakers. Imagine getting multiple pairs on here. Really, Iss is a bunch of re-sellers like I said just like Ebay except in this situation you can do what you want. For example, if both parties lived in the same area such as NYC, then usually they would do a meetup with each other at discussed time and place after making a agreement. Everything is done at your own risk including shipping first or sending money orders/check first. Well, right now I'm making Iss sound like a negative site but it's not. It is much more convenient than other online shopping sites although it may take some time to get a transaction going. Personally, I like Iss a lot because it has gotten me my fair shares of deals and profits (not much). I of course, spent more than I made because I'm always buying re-seller's shoes and clothes that are exclusive and no longer available at stores. What I really want to explain here in this post is youth control the market place in many aspects because they are the one's targeted. Sneakers and Clothings were made to grab their interests and pull them in to buy, even when it is overpriced like Flight Club (check out Vintagekicks.com) or when you have to line up in freezing cold weather for days or even weeks. Im trying to say that the prices are not originally like that but it's how they make it. Their desire and want for the items contributes to it's price. Remember, Issforums.com
Noticing all the clothes and sneakers or any other clothing material in fashion in America? Guess what? A large majority comes from China. Check your tags, you would probably find half to 75% of your fashion or clotheswear saying Made from China. Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that China has over the years, created a huge impact on our economy our society causing us to follow trends and fashion created over there. Because the U.S. depends too much on other countries for supplies, wants and needs, we end up pretty helpless. It's always about buying from other people. American doesn't supply much of anything except maybe food is the best resource we have ourselves. Otherwise, we buy from other countries, things like oil, cotton, shoes and many other materials that we need and use every single day. However, America does have American brands but they are not supported/wanted because they do not create interest in anyone. The style of their fashion does not fit in our culture especially youth.
Lets get on the the story. As I listed one of my contacts as well as my first, Label Networks provide information on youth culture atleast twice a year and they get their facts from study, strait from the source. Here I found their latest studies in China on Youth Culture for 2009. The link is here http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=683602. This is not exactly Label Networks real site, but an article that leads to the real source.
Basically this article is about how the chinese (myself also one) follow trends and how certain aspects affect their preferences on fashion and culture, leading them to spend according to the attractiveness of the brand/trend and their desire for it. “The Chinese youth market is comprised of an entirely new generation among their 1.3 billion people who have grown up among massive economic reforms resulting in influencing a great deal of the overall spending power of China,” says Tom Wallace, President of Label Network. I believe what he says, this is very true because China use to be like just a whole bunch of villages, bunch of emptiness. Over the last few decades or so, things have changed. China became more advanced and skyscrapers arose, even more than what we have here in America now. Don't forget the value of the dollar, they are catching up to us as well. We use to get well over 8 dollars for one American dollar. Now we get what, a merely 6 dollars and change or may be a bit more. Maybe the majority of the people are not realizing what is happening but big changes are going on in our society, not just the big point, recession but a lot of things are also going on. The article also includes talk about Internet Cafes and Cultural hotspots. This reminds me, over here in New York, I also noticed a lot of Internet Cafes, majority opened by Asians, sometimes even 3-4 cafes on the same block. This makes me think why and does it make money? So, I went to all these internet cafes and notice a few things in common, a lot of asian customers, snacks and drinks which are for the 24/7 opening cafes so they can stay there all night, and most of all, it's dirty. Internet cafes get very dirty after a while because of smoking (even with the no-smoking sign there) and spit all over the place. Anyways, the point is this is part of their culture, online shopping, games is now a huge influence on everyone, not just the chinese. You already know where to contact LabelNetworks so just go ahead and hit them up!
They themselves may not know it yet, but they are falling in to a deep pit that will bring them only pain and suffering. Anorexic models really only see what they think is beauty now because they enjoy having a skinny/slender appearance where they can expose fashion out to the world on their bodies. However, they have not realized the impact of being anorexic and how it is affecting not only their appearance but their inner-self. Being truly anorexic models, they have a full concentration of losing weight and staying at the appearance they are at. Eventually they get to a point where it may no longer be controlable and starts tearing their system. Results would be like mental illness and may even bring you in to a coma. This is the horrifying truth that anorexic models don't accept. Promoting the dangers of anorexia would help build the confidence that these models need. They are not realizing the more important things of life, though they believe modeling/fashioning is their greatest passion. That can be done but their isn't a need for anorexia. The truth is real, anorexia is like a drug, the addiction to become that skeleton self can kill you. This subject area in fashion is by far the most dangerous and it doesn't have to be that way. I'm sure people would still buy and take interest in the latest fashion from more "heavier" models. Their is a better way to have a beautiful physique body. Don't you want people to see your body and say "wow, I wish I had a body like hers" or "that's a amazing body." I mean all these things are achievable just like how they achieved a anorexic self.
Although this artile is two years back, I still want to share some news from CBS with you guys because this article is seriously terrifying and definitely helps in promoting the dangers of anorexia. The link is http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/16/earlyshow/main3371433.shtml and the title is Anorexic Model On Road To Recovery Isabelle Caro Exposed Herself To World In Campaign Against Eating Disorder. You can obviously contact www.cbsnews.com for more information. Also, this article has a comment section where you can leave comments and opinions. I noticed three comments and although those people that comment may not be experts but they have their own point of views and obviously have some knowledge in the field. Here is a picture of a anorexic model from Google. Very scary image in my opinion, you can see her ribs through her shirt....http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/photo/6-264.jpg
References (30): I'd give it a 20 because not all information has references.
Documentation (20): They do give the dates for which the facts/information was taken place but not for everything and doesn't exactly tell who the information is coming from except the site and a few magazine sources. I would rate this a 10 only for documentation.
Vetting (20): There is no sign of peer review on the page but maybe on the links/sources it gives us which are magazines. I only rate this a 5.
Author Information (30): There is no author but really just an narrarator that gives all the information. I'd rate this a 10 because its weak, hard to find where the information is coming from and how to contact them.
This is a site that was created back in 2000 and from then on created a fast researchable database for people to get to information about the youth community, trendsetting, marketplace and the technological or fast growing economy. Label Network has a amazing web page where you add comments, review and best of all, their information is from hands on study and researching to give you accurate and a good amount of information. However, you must suscribe to Label Networks, their site to get full access and insights to the information you desire. Each year, Label Networks would do a Fall Youth Culture Study twice. Not only do they research about just fashion (t-shirt, denim), but also retail landscape, retail in general, electronics, sports, social networking, video gaming, music, automotive, the fast food industries, beverage and the most urgent topics in the near future. My favorite is the sneaker culture and my interest is set in their because no matter how I try to quit collecting/buying sneakers, the interest and addiction for it does not leave me. Label Networks' have many clients and some of them we may recognize: Footlocker Europe, DC, Adidas Originals, Toyota Europe, Burton, Dickies, Sunkist, RedBull, K-Swiss, Timberland, Fox Racing, Reebok, Fuel TV/Fox Sports, Apple Computer, The North Face, Creative Artists Agency, Pacific Sunwear and many more. Also, you may want to know that Tom Wallace is the President of Label Networks. His views include mix culture influences and new opportunities including the marketplace. To contact Label Networks, Inc., look for them at (323) 630-4000; mailto:youthculture@labelnetworks.com; www.labelnetworks.com. Their main location is 400 S. Main St., #701, Los Angeles,CA90013.
Contact 2 The Wall Street Journal - Fashion http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122152150288939413.html Fashion in a Faltering Economy By Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan-Sept.15.2008 This site as we all know gives us the most up to date news that are released to the public online. I found this article while google searching a few key terms relating fashion and the economy and after reading it, I notice it gives pretty good information and we all know where reporters get their information from, strait from the source. On The Wall Street Journal, you can see other people's comments if there is any and other things if they have such as videos or slideshows related to the article. This article helped me remember that not only fashion can influence the economy but the economy can also influence fashion which this articles' position really is on. By the way Cheryl can reached by email at cheryl.tan@wsj.com.
Contact 3 Hypebeast - Online Magazine for fashion, sneakers & Culture http://hypebeast.com/ Staff includes Editor in Chief - Kevin Ma Managing Editor - Eugene Kan Editor - Luis Ruano Contributors - Jey Perie Photography - Season Chan This site is basically what it is, summarized in the title. It gives the latest updates and future releases on fashion, sneaker and accessories that interests the typical consumers that are in to the game. What I mean by that is people who are devoted to fashion and care about what clothes and sneakers they wear, usually to appeal to others but not neccessarily. Hypebeast is kind of like a person who is just in love with the fashion culture and would do just about anything to gain what they desire such as lining up in the streets in front of the store releasing them on a cold winter day for days to weeks. That is just my position on the definition of hypebeast but the main reason why I include hypebeast.com as a contact is because I use it and it helps my blog define what I am trying to say, that fashion culture has a impact on our economy and our society. I conclude that because Hypebeast is sort of like a advertisement or simply a just fashion and culture version of the New York Times. People are enabled to add comments to certain posts to express their views on the topic. Anyways, this site is really helpful to those who wants to keep updated on the latest fashion news. You can reach hypebeast at info@hypebeast.com
Contact 4 Issforums.com- http://www.solecollector.com/ This site is my favorite and it has a forum that allows user to buy/sell/trade sneakers, clothes, accessories and everything that you would want to sell,buy or trade just like ebay. This site has many people, mostly teenagers that are in to "the game." Usually this is the place of re-sellers or who people who line up for limited items or however they get the stuff and re-sell the item on the site for a much higher price. Because the stuff are limited, people raise the price so prices are determined by each other and the desire for it. If a person is willing to pay the price, then the price would probably set in the area and there the item meets it's new price. I also use this site and there are plenty of moderators and administrators that watch/keep order over it everyday. There are certain rules in this forum and breaking it results in getting banned.. Over the years, the site has changed a little such that others can no longer post in your thread in the buy/sell forums because it would keep bumping your thread up to the top constantly. Anyways, ISS (Insole shoes) also have blogs, discussion forums where you can talk about anything, release dates for stuff, and even a flamethrower thread where you can take out your anger on someone who flaked on you or something. Flake means to not show up for a meetup that was agreed to or decline a transaction after agreeing to it. Basically this site have many hypebeasts on there, if that's what you want to call them and allows people usually in the age group of 13-25, to explore and obtain their interests. Once joining this site, you would be addicted if you have a interest in fashion because I had my own experiences. I tried quitting but after a year, it just totally absorbed me. Find more about this site yourself! The contacts they have is only at http://www.solenoise.com/. Here I want to show you a video of a fellow isser who seems to be really "excited" when his part of the deal arrives. The video is from youtube. The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0pWupVuSY
The image is really how some people view what a hypebeast is. Description is in the picture.
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In the last ten years, the fashion culture has grown a lot in our society and has help shape the economy/nation in what it is today. People 13-25 years of age have aid this in happening by building up market trends. They now make up the majority of the market. These trends are influenced mostly by new economic conditions and differences in technology. Rising patterns and fashion often shifts people's views and trends for where they spend theirs' or their parent's hard earned money. The main influences of the markets come from the news media, music, sports, entertainment, marketing, etc. "The Fall Youth Culture Study 2008, produced by Label Networks, the world’s leading global youth culture intelligence media company, provides fresh consumer insight, analysis, profiles, and forecasts that indicate how this new generation has come into their own—even creating a generation gap within the marketplace itself and where market trends are headed, including the ripple effects across Europe, Japan, and China (http://labelnetworks.com/press/press_09_15_08.php)."
Basically this post is about how large of a impact does fashion and all it's subcultures have on our economy/society and how strong of a grip does it have on the marketplace!
