Posted on July 03 2023
If there is one thing that is never stagnant, it is the fashion industry and its preferences, the market it caters to, and the trends. Fashion constantly evolves and motivates brands to curate signature collections that are an edge over others in a competitive landscape.
This brings us to the topic under analysis: the Rising Popularity of Global Streetwear and Its Market Impact. Global streetwear is ruling the charts for comfort wear which is fashionable and a current trend. Here, we highlight some demographies around this popular fashion wear, popular global streetwear brands, generational preferences, and business impact.
How do we define streetwear?
Typically streetwear falls under the casual wear category of clothes and became popular in the 1990s springing from Californian surf culture and the New York hip-hop genre. Japanese streetwear, skateboarding, athleisure, and punk are the finer elements of streetwear that speak columns about relaxed fits, comfort wear, and cosy fabric, almost snugging the person who flaunts them. Global streetwear features oversized hoodies, t-shirts, joggers, and sneakers that do not fit your form but rather caress the body. It symbolises the current youth’s non-conformist “I don’t care” attitude bestowing them with a sense of freedom sans rules and societal pressure. The demand for flamboyant designs and intricate couture art is clearly lesser than for Global streetwear.
Preferential Demographics
The global streetwear market has a revenue of $185 billion approximately, accounting for 10% of the world's fashion market. How has this fashion trend captured a mass-audience appeal and ruled the world with wide acceptance?
As mentioned above, this fashion trend appeals to the vast majority, partly due to the sense of freedom it imparts and partly due to fashion influencers on social media platforms. According to a survey conducted by PWC, leading market players like Supreme, Nike, Off-White, and Adidas represent global streetwear to most audiences. Their wide popularity, cemented market presence, and flexibility to mould styles to suit a Gen Z audience have made them more popular than other market players. The survey further confirms that most of the global streetwear market audience age falls under 25. The generation that has just taken off on their career paths has an annual income of $40,000 or less and does not hesitate to splurge up to $300 monthly on their favourite brands. Gone are the days when the Fashion industry’s insiders stated rules of what is trending and what is not. Today the industry caters to what the audience actually wants. 84% of the audience is heavily influenced by social media and makes choices based on what peers prefer. The conscious youth buys sustainable brands, and whether it is because of the rising concern about carbon footprints or a fear of being excluded or passe, their preferences are indirectly helping the planet to become a greener place to live.
The demographics above prove that this global streetwear fashion trend is gaining popularity and is expected to have a positive trajectory for the next 5 years.
Affordable and luxurious Streetwear labels to check out
Fashionistas must check out these reasonable, streetwear labels to look like the uber-cool person in the gang. Purchase from brands like Stussy, Denim Tears, 10.Deep, Hype, The Hundrers, Bricks & Wood, Obey, and Crime Club to name a few. These are the best brands to flaunt when on a shoestring budget. For the more luxurious label lovers, some brands to pick from are Bape, Off-white, Heron Preston, Supreme, Ambush, I’ll write you letters, and more. Whether affordable or luxurious, one thing is sure, what is trendy is noticed, irrespective of its price tags.
Top 3 factors propelling streetwear brands' Sales
Global streetwear brands must capitalise on the below factors to capture a majority of the audience
Affordability
The Target audience belonging to Gen Z for most Global streetwear brands is essential to keep the price range affordable. This strategy would make them invincible because it is impractical to expect them to spend a bomb and buy couture-collection worth fashionwear.
Uniqueness
Today, the world needs uniqueness and authenticity in its brands. Adding a background story for the collections, seasoning the products with emotions, and capturing subtlety, hold the key. The brands like IWYL have successfully done this to stand out from the crowd.
Demand generation
As always, people fall for tags like “limited edition”, “one-piece left”, and “single-version” apparel, and by creating signature curations with no repetition of patterns or designs help boost market value seamlessly.
“Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment” holds true in the current fashion arena more than ever before. As the youth badly wants to break barriers, needs more breathable space to exist, wants to embrace inclusivity of body shape, size, and colour, and celebrates gender equality, the intention and steps reflect on their choice of attire. You are what you wear holds more weight today than what you eat. What do you think?