The Rise of the Drop Lord
How style culture, social media, sports and fandom drives youth consumerism and created the Drop Lord archetype.
You may not have heard the term, but you have seen him or her. You may even know someone like them. Streetwear is made up of members; those that create and drive culture. The other half is pedestrians, those that idolize the culture and drive fandom. With the advent of social media, street culture and streetwear style became much more accessible thanks to influencers, rappers, and athletes validating the style, performing in it and wearing it at key moments. The tunnel walk has become the new fashion runway. Let’s remember, it wasn’t too long ago that athletes were not considered fashionable at all, think about the giant ill fitting suits popular at the NBA drafts worn by Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James. I bring up Basketball, because Hoop and Skate culture have the biggest influence on streetwear to this day.
The style quotient for athletes changed the last few years as Streetwear became more mainstream, went luxury and Stylists proliferated. Social media created broadcasting platforms for stylish or wanna be stylish folks to show their drip.
Brands spend a lot of time studying consumer behavior which helps inform their marketing and strategy. Most brands have a name for that consumer as they create an archtype. At adidas we called our target consumer the “Streetwear Hound”. Descriptions like “Ghetto Princess”, “ Drip queen and king” etc were thrown around in non consumer facing ways. Some folks found this offensive, unfortunately, most brands and large global retailers do it, some have more sensitivity now about what descriptions they use. In my strategy work, I like to use the term “Drop Lordz”, which is unisex and that is the archetype I am writing about.
Drop Lordz use product or access to product as social currency. Social currency translates into social capital and ultimately capital as many become culture celebrities in their own right. Streetwear fashion remains relevant through scarcity, drop culture and limited edition collections. You are considered cool or influencial if you have access to certain sneakers, brands, looks. Style culture created style influencers and that is where Drop Lordz come in.
Waiting in line for “the drop” is the way these products are brought to market and they sell through right away. This causes a chain effect that drives not only commerce, but fandom, consumerism, hype demand. Now if you are a regular adolescent that fancies themselves “cool” in the suburbs, how do you learn about street culture and get the goods? You follow your favorite Drop Lord. Someone like Bloody Osiris or Gully Leo for example.
Pros at getting their hands on cool product are what I like to call “Drop Lordz”. Drop Lordz are quasi influencers that obtain product through seeding, or buy the product at retail. They wear it, post it on Instagram and sell it for a profit afterwards. Some of them are so savvy that they pay someone else to wait in line for them, a shopping or line assistant if you will. It’s a mini circular economy driven by style and fandom.
This idea of obtaining cool stuff first has coined the phrase, “I got it retail” which means, they didn’t have to go the secondary market. A place like Stadium Goods, Stock X or ebay. Sometimes these pseudo influencers are screaming this on their TikTok or youtube channels. If you watch the early Ari Petrou YouTube content, he can be heard chanting this often. It’s comical, but it became a battle cry. Essentially telling their communities that they were cool enough to get it first and not pay a premium for it.
Getting the product at retail was a huge feat for many of these young fans. They were pedestrians in the culture, but they were at the top of the pedestrian food chain. The ubiquitous image of a young man dressed in streetwear next to a luxury car drove more fandom. Essentially telling adolescents that style culture was cool, sexy, relaxed and would get them the girl and into the club.
One step up from retail would be they received the product through “seeding” which is gifting by the designer or brand. This is also seen as a major big deal for anyone in the culture, still is. Brands spend tons of money on seeding to “pre-heat” the marketplace and drive social and media mentions. It drives brand equity and organic community. There is a halo effect that money can’t buy. Every project I work on has a strong seeding component included. Even influential figures will post the capsule or seeding gift right away to show they have clout in the industry.
I still have rappers call me today to say, can i get that? I remember a funny story at Converse when we were seeding the first Off White Chuck Taylor around 2018 which was part of “The 10” a highly collectible story and capsule that Virgil Abloh invented designing ten pairs of Nike (Converse is owned by Nike).
We had waves of the seeding to insure that the coolest folks got it first and were able to post it, then we sent to tier 2 influencers and tier 3 before it came to market. Sort of an A- list celebrity and down hierarchy. There was literally a whole seeding strategy behind it, identifying the relevant folks and when they would receive it. If someone didn’t get theirs in a timely manner, there were calls to the company, like “Yo, where is my pair?” People came out of the woodwork to demand a pair. Needless to say there were a lot of egos to manage in the process.
I don’t know if Drop Lordz will survive as the marketplace becomes so saturated and Gen Z steps away from hyper consumerism. Many of them have gone on to become style celebrities in their own right and social media influencers. Style culture will always thrive because stylish, cool people will be aspirational to the masses as they broadcast their style through their social platforms driving fandom. Sports figures influence Drop Culture and streetwear, it’s a symbiotic relationship. Right now the tunnel walk is critical for culture and the brands that leverage it modeled by both WNBA and NBA athletes.
After the pandemic sneaker culture and the secondary markets have cooled, but it’s not over, just evolving into a mature-saturation phase as consumers become more intentional about how they allocate their funds and purchase items.
