Hypebeast

If you have ever frequented any of the major sneaker message boards such as NikeTalk or Instyleshoes, I’m sure you have seen the term Hypebeast thrown around a bit. The common person will probably sit there completely confused, and assume it’s just some street slang they aren’t up on. Well that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Believe it or not, the sneaker culture, well I should probably clarify it as the online sneaker culture spawned this term several years ago.

Let me set the scene for you that in my opinion changed the way the sneaker world worked, and spawned the birth of the Hypebeast. It’s August 2003, The Nike SB craze hasn’t really taken off too much yet, and most, if not all releases are still sitting on shelves for sometime before selling out, or going on clearance (yea that’s right, the kicks you guys are shelling out upwards of $500 for used to get marked down to $30).

So world renowned skateshop Supreme is set to release their second collaboration with Nike SB. The buzz has been set for the release. There are three colorways releasing, each limited to 1000 pairs, and will only release at the two Supreme stores in the world, one in NYC and one in Japan. The momentum for the release has been building up for months, and the kicks themselves look completely ridiculous to the common person. They are a pair of dunk high sbs, in three obnoxious colorways and feature gold stars on the side panels surrounding the Nike swoosh, reptile skin texture on the outer panels as well as gold Supreme lacelocks. They even offered matching striped Supreme beanies with pom-poms.

Well they sure did it. It was the first time a sneaker release made the newspapers in NY. A couple hundred people were camped out for 2 days to get their hands on these coveted kicks, and a new breed of sneakerhead was born. The sneakers retailed for around $180 i believe, and immediately were seeing ebay prices of $400 plus. They now go for anywhere from $500-$1200 depending on the size, color and condition.

After this, the sneaker craze grew momentum as well as certain streetwear brands, Supreme being one of them. The message boards were being flooded with kids interested in buying anything limited and expensive for nothing more than prestige and e-fame. A prime example would be a lot of the tshirts Supreme had released in the past and continues to do so. They release many graphics that are political, have a direct influence from a certain subculture such as punk rock and hiphop designs, that ignorant buyers were shelling out 10 times the retail price to purchase.

This should give you a rough idea of where the term hypebeast came from. It is the combination of hype (A fad. A clever marketing strategy which a product is advertized as the thing everyone must have, to the point where people begin to feel they need to consume it.) and the slang term beast (which can mean virtually anything in different context, but in this case it means a person who acts on impulse and is out of control). There was a typical look and fashion sense (or lack of) that could help you spot a hypebeast from a mile away. Overall the whole thing is just quite amusing.
The term started getting thrown around on the above mentioned boards to describe this new trend of sneakerheads or hypebeasts, and in 2004 ShineOx of Niketalk drew up this sketch, which illustrated the fictional hypebeast:

In 2005 an updated version was sketched by ShineOx to update the fashion trends and keep with the times:

This is the 2006 version breated by The War Collective