Fashion has proved its resilience during 2021 but what are the latest influencer, social media fashion trends and collabs you should care about this quarter?
Brand News:
Crocs just defeated Yeezy
Crocs, the shoe of the moment, has overtaken global streetwear powerhouse Yeezy (Kanye’s fashion empire and brain child) in this month’s HypeBeast Brand Rankings. As we know, Crocs has had a huge brand shift from a being perceived as a strange practical shoe to appearing on every gift guide.
The brand has been hot as ever on collaborations, working with the likes of Post Malone, Pleasure, Balenciaga and Kurt Geiger. Their next big move is the highly anticipated gorp-core collaboration with Salehe Bembry, which should be dropping soon.
What is the Gore-Tex hype?
When Gore-Tex first appeared, it was the best waterproofing you could buy and the seasoned hiker’s go-to gear. Fast-forward to today and ‘Gorp-core’ aka ‘hiker chic’ has consumers flocking to the brand as a source of everyday fashion.
Gore-Tex has hand-picked its collaborations to cement their new positioning as a credible mainstream brand. Collaborators include streetwear brand Arcteryx, Nike, Adidas, Clarks, New Era, Supreme and Palace.
With consumers increasingly making more conscious decisions, there’s been a huge rise in consumers focusing on BIFL brands (buy-it-for-life.) Gore-Tex fits into this niche, with items costing slightly more but higher quality and made to last.
Brands turn to tech to fight counterfeit fashion
In a bid to combat the overwhelming amount of counterfeit imitations, brands are turning to innovative hacks like QR code labels to prove the authenticity of their goods. We’re a big fan of this clever approach to fighting forged goods.
Inspiring Campaigns: Etsy’s Christmas campaign
Etsy’s Christmas campaign focuses on the importance of representation. The advert begins with a Santa meet and greet at a shopping centre, with a father feeling underrepresented after seeing pictures of a white Santa on gift bags and posters. The story focuses on the often untold story about feeling represented, and the way a son can recognise his father’s desire to feel seen through a meaningful gift.
Influencer Insights: Micro-influencers present macro opportunities
This definitely isn’t new on our radar but thanks to the boom of quick streaming platforms like TikTok, which is dominated by organic content from relatable content creators and niche target audiences.
We’re seeing brands take a different turn for influencer marketing. They are interested in collaborating with nano- and micro-influencers as the content tends to go viral and reach mass audiences on a large scale.
Content Crazes: Ditching Trends
Creators on TikTok have been shutting down trends they don’t rate anymore in an impactful, humorous and retable way. Now that we are approaching the New Year, influencers will be creating content around which fashion trends need to be forgotten and left behind in 2021.
Why we think this trend works: The beginning of the year is such an important time in the fashion industry as brands are beginning to figure out what’s popular and what’s not.
Watch outs: More content from influencers will be discussing their 2022 predictions and the fashion trends to ditch on platforms like TikTok and Youtube. Brands can tap into this to ensure that they are aware of what their target audience’s opinion and what they like.
Latest Launches: Adidas x Simpsons collaboration – love or hate?
Adidas are back once again with a Simpsons collab with an incredible application. The “Snowballs IIs” trainers are weird but incredible. Though they’re impractical and many sneakerheads are criticising the shell toe (they had to get some Adi somewhere), they’re still an incredible release. Do you love or hate them?
Palace x Harrods Collaboration
An unconventional collab between Harrods and Palace is dropping soon. Supreme and Palace love a random, zany collaboration but this could be a major coup for Harrods.
This seems like a major attempt to muscle into the Streetwear psyche for Harrods. The Streetwear market will spend large sums of money to buy the perfect item yet Harrods is never mentioned as a destination to attain these items (more Selfridges, End, DSM, or direct from brand). It’s rumoured that the collab will only be available from Harrods, which is unusual as traditionally collabs are only available from Palace bar one or two exclusive items.
Contact us if you want BDB to ramp up your brand’s influencer marketing efforts.
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