According to Urban Dictionary, “A hype beast is a kid that collects clothing, shoes, and accessories for the sole purpose of impressing others”. A notable brand that particularly attracts hypebeasts is Supreme. The reason why some millennials spend over $2000 on retailed Supreme, corresponds to the fact that the brand deliberately retains artificial scarcity for their products. In a capitalist society, the production and pricing of goods and services are typically determined by supply and demand. Furthermore, firms usually supply more as demand increases, but that’s not the case for Supreme. The founder, James Jebbia, has openly spoken to the odd practices of the company and his disregard for basic supply and demand considerations to further the exclusivity of his brand.
Nonetheless, Supreme’s business model still fails to explain why kids continue to spend so much on seemingly simple designer items. Norwegian-American economist, Thorstein Veblen, however, can offer insight through his concept of Veblen goods -or goods for which demand increases as their price increases. Veblen also developed the idea of “conspicuous consumption” which defines the purchase of luxury goods and services purely to display one’s wealth and status. Seeing as this definition closely ties to that of a hypebeast, we can clearly correlate the two.
Still, most hypebeasts are not affluent, high-class millionaires who constantly have the funds to feed their wants in the first place. But now with Veblen’s theory in mind, we are able to draw a conclusion. Hypebeasts, usually of lower incomes, spend whatever money they do have on expensive things to imitate the tendencies of the rich who commonly parade their wealth. By attempting to emulate a sense of wealth, hypebeasts counter any perception of lesser status.
Veblen along with his institutional economics are vital in the public’s understanding of consumer behavior. The economy and cultural institutions influence one another in a perpetual feedback loop. All in all, it is essential to account for the general material conditions of society when trying to grasp a middle-class millennial’s outrageous spending habits.
I thought this was really interesting to read because I see this locally, and fairly often at that. It is a common thought among individuals that obtaining this type of clothing will seemingly elevate your social status by appearing to be affluent and trendy. It makes you wonder what society is evolving into with how often you see this type of social trend. Though it seems to have become vehemently more common in recent decades, the fad of obtaining costly items to impress peers has occurred for as long as there has been an established social hierarchy.
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