Making Streetwear More Social
Independent fashion brands have always been the David to big brand’s Goliath. Many independent brands struggle to maintain relevancy in the world of fashion. In streetwear, several new brands have found success by staying on top of current events or current social media jokes and trends and creating clothes to relate to those topics. Chinatown Market is the leader in this new wave dubbed fast streetwear and it all stems from how they market themselves.
By wanting to be a reactionary brand and using big events, trends, or even jokes in social media to find inspiration, Chinatown Market has developed their own spot in the streetwear community. At their core, they make clothes to honor Canal Street in New York and its bootleg culture. What they do isn’t copying the designs of other artists though, they copy the media and make it into clothing. From Kanye West bootlegs to Frank Ocean song titles, Mike Cherman and the rest of Chinatown Market work to create relevant clothing.
Image Courtesy: Strike Tallahassee
One of their first big projects, a video with Chief Keef and the video production company WeBuyGold, helped get Chinatown Market into a more public sphere. The rapper had a run in with police that went viral several years ago. Chief Keef immortalized the incident by telling the police that he bought a fast car so that he could go fast. WeBuyGold and Chinatown Market remade this incident into an animated video to put on social media and into clothes they could sell. It went viral as well, due to the joking nature of it. This shows how Chinatown Market plays on other events and uses them to sell clothes.
One of the biggest moments for Chinatown Market was during the 2018 Finals, Lebron James wore a pair of Chinatown Market sneakers, bootleg Converse High Tops, and it got a lot of buzz. After James lost in the finals, Chinatown Market released shirts for the Warriors victory. In a way, this legitimized their approach, James wore the shoes solely because of the social media brand, and Chinatown Market benefitted from that. Yet they still celebrated Golden State beating Lebron a week later, because the brand is at its core about relevancy.
Chinatown Market thrives on being a very relatable brand, one that their audience feels a connection to. They frequently are posting on their Instagram feed about new releases as well as posting stories that show their behind the scenes work in the studio. It gives an open look at the creative atmosphere Mike Cherman instilled there, where they want everyone working on every part of the design process, being able to take pride In their own work. Their Instagram is also a place for them to share memes and jokes with their audience, and those jokes may be what they are using as their next design.
Overall, Chinatown Market is paving new ways not just in fast streetwear, but also in how social media is used for business. Instead of the big businesses having the advantage through advertising, indie designers can still create a whole audience, gain attention from celebrities, and develop into a big success all using social media. Chinatown Market proves that you can make waves in the industry as long as you create fresh content and stay on top of your online presence.
Strike Out,
Writer: Jacob Richards
Editor: Savannah Tindall
Graphic Designer: Sophie Li
Tallahassee