How Hypebeast Communicate
Here’s a short history of the Hypebeast and how they came to be, even more so how they become the cornerstone of street fashion. While many of the OG go against the idea of subscribing to “Hypebeastism.” It can’t be denied that they are the primary force of pushing street fashion into its current trajectory. The hypebeast culture has a way of communicating and understanding each other just like any other culture. This type of language creates a unique and versatile style of communication. I will be identifying and explaining how language works within this community.
How does it work?
Hypebeast have a very interesting way of communicating between one another. The Hypebeast culture has a variety of terminology in which is used to communicate amongst each other. They may use memes, lingo, slang , or even abbreviated words as a way to communicate. Someone who may not have any knowledge regarding how hypebeast communicate, might find themselves using an online Urban dictionary to define the actual meaning of these words. A popular word used in the hypebeast culture is deadstock, which is usually abbreviated as “DS.”
The word Deadstock/DS is a brand new sneaker that has never been worn or ever tried on. In the early stages of the hypebeast community the word deadstock used to be mistakenly defined as a particular shoe of some sort being out of stock or sold out. “I think it should still be used to describe shoes that were discovered as new old stock,” Leaventon says (complex news sneaker collector). “But It seems like it’s been made into one word that’s now used to describe [any] product that’s unworn.” Another term used in the hypebeast culture is “camp.” When you hear the word camp you probably would think of being in the woods with a tent and a campfire. It’s basically the same as the hypebeast term minus the fire and the tent. Camp/Camping in the hypebeast culture is lining up overnight for upcoming sneaker release. Camping out for shoes was popular during the early stages of the hypebeast culture, but as of today you have to usually win a raffle for a releasing sneaker.
How does the terminology build the community?
The language in the hypebeast community does affect the membership, due to there being so many different uses or words or terminology it becomes more so like a second language to members of the community. The hypebeast community usually uses this coded language on popular social sites like Facebook and Instagram. In the book Because Internet the author stated “That teens I met are attracted to popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter or mobile technologies like apps and text messaging for entirely different reasons (Page 81).” These popular social sites bring more attention to this community which usually result in potential members to gain knowledge and learn from others within the community. Garcia, a member from complex news stated that, “I’ve always been down with our community creating our own slang to describe our culture, and letting the brands figure it out,” he says, “not the other way around.”
This is a meme of the Carmine 6’s (bottom) which resale over $300 USD being compared to a shoe which may be known as a “replica” a word used in the community to describe a shoe that is imitating another shoe which is usually sold at a cheaper price.
