HOW PEOPLE AND SUBCULTURE GIVE BRANDS RELEVANCE AND NEW MEANING
relevance in the age of subculture and infinite scroll
This is a follow up to an essay I recently wrote on Chasing Cultural Relevance and a particular topic within that I wanted to expand on in more detail here. One of the things I covered was that cultural relevance is given by people and the community. This week I wanted to explore that in a bit more depth through some clear examples of when this has happened and the differences between when it’s happened in a pre-social media age and now in the algorithm and endless scroll era. We’ll take a journey to the Brooklyn streets, the bars of Portland and the dancehalls of Jamaica, before a more present day trip to Liverpool and Hackney.
When it comes to buying brands and products, beyond the most basic and functional need, we buy them because whether we care to admit it or not, they signify something about us. They also allow us to buy into something.
These brand or product choices can signify our tastes, whether that’s through knowledge, style, or financial worth. When they allow us to buy into something, it could be values or ideals, socioeconomic groups, subcultures or community.
These choices ultimately shape our identity and status.
Beyond a brand’s core target customer set there is always a broader set of people buying brands. But what happens when those broader sets of buyers totally flip the script for what a brand means? What happens when within those broader sets are influential groups, communities and subcultures that buy into the brands because of the status and identity they give, but by adopting them they end up giving the brands new meanings and places in culture?
That’s when things get really interesting.
FIFTH AVE TO THE Lo Life
When Ralph Lifshitz was growing up in the Bronx in the 1960s, he dreamt of one day owning his own clothing line and emulating the preppy look of New York’s rich kids, living the high life in the Hamptons and New England. After working at Brooks Brothers selling ties, he set out to design clothing lines around that lifestyle he wished to live. Lifshitz would become Lauren and end up living the life he dreamt of on the way to creating one of the world’s biggest clothing empires.
As Ralph Lauren targeted preppy and upmarket groups, a subcultural group also wanted to buy into the same status world Ralph was making clothes for. In 1988, two boosting (shoplifting) crews that shared a love for Ralph Lauren joined forces to create The Lo Lifes. The Brooklyn collective grew as a community that shared the love of RL because of its maxi logos and bright colourways, but at the heart of things was a want to better themselves, with clothing as the way to do that.
Ralph Lauren was sold in the high end stores of Fifth Avenue, Manhattan so coming back to their Brooklyn neighbourhoods with the latest Polo would give them status, it made them somebody.
“How I felt having them on and how everybody else looked at me. These were items of respect and gave you social status in your neighborhood,” Thirstin Howl The 3rd, one of the founding members and author told Vice.
The love of RL soon spread wider as rappers like Brand Nubian and Raekwon would soon be wearing the brands in videos. The latter’s wearing of a Snow Beach overcoat in the Wu-Tang video for “Can It Be All So Simple” would become an iconic piece of clothing, easily fetching up to 10 times its retail price on the secondary market. The brand has continued to be loved by Hip-Hop from Just Blaze to Kanye West, Young Dro to 88-Keys while Lo Life still holds regular meetups to showcase rare Polo items.
Hip-Hop grew out of working class neighbourhoods and communities. People weren’t living easy so when people had money to spend, they wanted to express themselves and a brand like Ralph Lauren, selling the American Dream and sold in the exclusive stores like Saks, would be the perfect way to signal expression through the brand. It showed you had money, taste and style. It gave you status amongst your peers.
Ralph Lauren didn’t set out to target Hip-Hop, but found Hip-Hop buying into it as it was aspirational and gave status, making the brand their own and by doing so, through Hip-Hop’s own growing status and credibility, it gave Ralph Lauren new found cultural relevance and meaning.
Clarks IN Jamaica
“Everybody haffi ask weh mi get mi Clarks”
The Vybz Kartel featuring Popcaan & Gaza Slim track ‘Clarks’ is one of over 200 Reggae, Ska and Dancehall tracks that mention the Somerset shoe maker.
Jamaica and the UK have always had a steady flow of cultural output between the two countries thanks to the colonial links. The Jamaican people associated British made goods with quality and Clarks shoes, particularly the iconic Desert Boot and Wallabee silos are revered on the island by many from rudeboys to musicians, businessmen to politicians.
Andrew Holness, the country’s prime minister, conspicuously wore Clarks, holding them in the air at public appearances during his election campaign in 2020. Gaining a much more credible reaction than when Rishi Sunak wore a pair of adidas Samba’s.
As the excellent and insightful book Clarks in Jamaica by Al Fingers explains, there were only two stockists of Clarks in Kingston, both upmarket stores next to each other on King Street and they would play a key role in its growth as people coveted these prestigious shoes that were out of reach for most cost wise. Another key factor is the Windrush generation as pairs were sent to family or taken back from visits to the UK.
This year Clarks is celebrating its 200th year and since day 1, has set out to create the best fitting shoes for people. For many, Clarks reminds people of getting their feet measured for their first pair of school shoes. For others, it’s a subcultural staple adored from Kingston to the Bronx and beyond.
Clarks didn’t set out to target the Rudeboys or Jamaica’s DJs and music makers, but found them buying into it for its status and making the brand their own and by doing so, through their own status and credibility, it gave Clarks new found cultural relevance and meaning.
“Clarks fi di leather, yeah, Clarks fi di fur
Clarks fi di summer, Clarks fi di winter
Clarks fi di sun, Clarks fi di water”
Both Clarks and Ralph Lauren are examples of when subcultural groups and communities have adopted a brand because of its aspiration and status signifiers, then made it their own to give the brands new meaning, relevance and credibility. But what happens when a brand is adopted by groups not because of what it is, but for what it’s not?
a dive bar staple
To describe the taste of Pabst Blue Ribbon wouldn’t be the kindest description, alcohol flavoured water comes to mind. It scores a 69 on Beer Advocate which rates the best beers in the world, that puts PBR at number 26,460. The brand had a stalwart 45-60 demographic and was seen as an affordable, blue collar beer. Now it’s associated with moustaches, workwear, bike messengers and all things Hipster. It’s a dive bar staple. A classic beer and a shot combo. Even with the rise of craft beer during the last 20 years, it’s still a beer that continues to sell well.
Back in the early 2000s, sales of the beer continued to fall until an outlier was noticed, with sales jumping 5% in Portland, Oregon. Bars like Lutz Tavern and the Ash Street Saloon were hangouts for bike messengers who wanted a cheap brew and particularly embraced the brand because of its lack of marketing. PBR wasn’t a brand with the big marketing budgets and campaigns the likes of Busch or Budweiser had. The aforementioned bars were even selling the beers as low as a dollar a can. Gradually, what happened in Portland began happening in New York and beyond, to become that dive bar staple.
PBR didn’t set out to target bike messengers or hipsters, but found them buying into it not for its aspirational status like we saw with Lo-Lifes and Ralph Lauren or Rudeboys and Clarks, but for a different type of status it created. A rebellious status. By rejecting the bigger macro brands that felt very commercial with the big budget marketing, it gave the blue collar beer new meaning and relevance.
Cultural Relevance and Meaning in an algorithm age
Ralph Lauren, Clarks and PBR are all long standing brands who have been co-opted by groups that weren’t the original target but who all gave the brands new meaning and relevance, with them all happening long before social media existed.
So in an age of endless targeting and segmentation, do brands still get co-opted by key subcultural groups, communities or influential tastemakers and people? Absolutely. But maybe not in the same way.
In the pre-social media age, the products and brands that became culturally relevant could sometimes take longer to be built up, as it takes key people, groups and communities to be the messenger through word of mouth, appearance and placement. The plus side being you had more chance to become longer lasting once larger and more defined subcultures adopted them. Both Ralph Lauren and Clarks are as relevant today with the groups mentioned as they were then.
Subculture still exists today but the age of social has helped niche communities form and thrive, as well as enable people to cross-pollinate and dabble in interests, looks, subcultures and communities as they please instead of years gone by when you’d be more strictly attached to the codes and conventions of one.
So in our social media, algorithmic age, the pace of how rapidly ideas and culture can potentially spread and be reinforced in an algorithmic loop of recommendation, means a brand or product can very quickly gain cultural relevance, but it will often be by multiple groups and niche communities, sometimes via cores and aesthetic trends as opposed to a larger subculture as we once knew it.
Let’s look at the running category. Running clubs have been around for a long time but have grown in popularity and been given more attention in the last 18 months as people yearn for community, connection and a lower barrier to entry to fitness. Running shoes from On, Salomon and HOKA all stole a march on adidas and Nike taking the foot off the gas in the category but they also gained traction with multiple groups of people who bought into the brands not for their technical attributes, or ability to help deliver a new PB.
In doing so, they’ve expanded on who a HOKA, On or Salomon buyer is and helped the brands find new relevance and meaning beyond running culture into adjacent spaces and scenes.
In Liverpool, wearing head to toe in one brand is a thing that stretches back to the casuals/scally era, yesteryear’s Sergio Tacchini and Fila tracksuits are now today’s Under Armour and On for the youth of Liverpool. The origin of people wearing head to toe On isn’t exactly clear, but you can see from spending any time in the city or through sub-Reddit’s and the TikTok rabbit hole, how it’s spread.
HOKA has been a fave for harcore trail runners due to their larger size and comfort, but spend any time in East London and you’ll see creative directors, fashion designers, cool mums and dads all rocking the chunkier runner for it’s comfort and a fascination for “ugly shoes”. Designed for steep mountains but equally fit for the long Pophams or Jolene queue.
Salomon has been going for longer than On or Hoka but has also caught waves with new audiences and scenes. In particular, the Salomon XT-6s, which is referenced in many moodboards and getting picked up by people who are mixing streetwear, gorp-core and more comfortable fashion styles. Tyrone and MJ Estrella, are widely recognised as people who helped popularise the XT-6 style within London with the former, working in cult vintage store 194 Local, a spot in Brick Lane that attracts anyone from fashion designers to famous models, cool hunters to the I saw this on Tik-Tok crowd.
Cultural relevance and new meanings are still being given to brands, even if they’re not happening in the same way as pre-social dominant subcultures. Now it’s happening in smaller pockets, sometimes in expected places like Hackney or Kreuzberg, but also more regionally like we saw with On in Liverpool. Now It’s happening with people who might not identify as Lo Lifes, Hipsters or Rudeboys, but take bits of inspiration and buy into multiple worlds, scenes and communities like streetwear and new luxury or cores like gorpcore.
CREATING with new fans, communities and tribes
When PBR went to investigate the uptick in sales in Portland and see how they could capitalise on it, they quickly realised that if the people driving the sales hated big traditional marketing but are passionate about the brand, they had to tread carefully. Luckily, as they had accidentally created such a fandom for the brand with bike messengers they needn’t worry as they were swamped with people wanting merchandise and even had groups approaching them about sponsoring events. Working closely with the bike messenger and adjacent communities the brand started appearing, without being overbearing at art galleries, skateboard movie screenings and independent publisher events to expand their reach.
Working with and participating in the subcultures and communities that begin to expand a brand’s reach, sales and relevance is the right and credible way to go. You can see in Clarks history of product collaborations and campaigns with the likes of Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Raheem Sterling and Popcaan right through to their 200 year anniversary work that’s just beginning to roll out, that the brand has never taken the love for granted and co-created with them.
On the flipside, while Ralph Lauren has had love from Hip-Hop for decades, the brand has never truly embraced the Hip-Hop community like their competitor Tommy Hilfiger did. Yet it’s still not damaged the brand, nor has it stopped the younger Hip-Hop generation from buying in. If anything, by not being acknowledged, it’s only made groups like the Lo Lifes make it their own even more. Not every brand would be able to get away with this and I wonder if the brand was created in a social media age and neglected those that gave it new relevance and meaning, whether they’d see some backlash.
Naturally the running brands have started recruiting talent outside of running and began collaborating in the fashion world, a tried and tested extension for sport brands since the beginning but I like how they’ve also gone hyper-local to who they’ve worked with or embraced. You'll see the aforementioned Tyrone and MJ Estrella in a campaign for the Salomon XT-6s they helped push, while On were very quick to spot the growing influence happening in Liverpool and opened up a brand experience pop up for fans to participate in a variety of group runs, yoga and movement classes, coffee clubs, and live DJ performances, as well as learn more about the brand and products.
IN CONCLUSION
Brands drive their own desirability through crafting the best products and brand experiences, but they’re given meaning by the people that buy them, even more so when it’s key subcultural groups or communities.
Key subcultures, scenes, groups and communities like Hip-Hop, Lo Lifes, Rudeboys, Mods, Punk, Casuals, Goths, Skinheads, Kawaii, Britpop, Teddy Boys, Hipsters, Ravers to name a few have all crafted new meanings for brands and helped create cultural relevance for them.
Carhartt was made to serve America’s blue-collar workers with hard-wearing and lasting gear and then became culturally relevant in the 90s when rappers adored the oversized and tougher fabrics.
Stone Island and Burberry was made for high fashion then found the Italian Paninaro and English football casuals through to its recent affiliation with Hip-Hop giving it cultural relevance.
Even in a world of cores and aesthetics, IYKYK and the newsfeed meme-ification of culture, we can still see brands taking on new meanings and cultural relevance.
Arc'teryx and Patagonia was built for the outdoor terrains but finds fashionistas, wall street wolves, tech bros and gorpcore enthusiasts all adoring the brand.
Guinness has been a staple for decades and strong links to rugby, as well as Caribbean culture. But of late you can’t escape the status it’s been given as the beer of choice for many thanks to a variety of social media creators and ‘constant splitting the g’ content.
As stated upfront, people buy brands because of their desirability, status and taste signals or allowing them to buy into values or ideals, socioeconomic groups, subcultures or community. Buyers of brands are not passive recipients. They act as co-producers because while they may buy into a brand for its desirability and status or showcasing tastes and wealth, once it’s in the audience’s hands they give it meaning.
For brands wanting to become culturally relevant, they can do well to learn the lessons of the brands mentioned throughout this article that have focused on who they are and what they stand for first, while building the best products and brand experience they can. That’s what puts themselves in the best position to create a desirability in the first place, that enables them to become culturally relevant to people and key groups and communities.