Dare you lead, instead of follow?

When Douglas Rushkoff, one of America’s most respected youth theorists, wrote his “Pursuit of Cool” essay for the tenth anniversary issue of SI’s Who’s Who edition in 2001, he had one basic question to address to the young fashion industry: “Dare you lead instead of follow?” Throughout his oft-quoted discourse, Rushkoff spotlighted the mechanisms between trends or even cultural movements among kids in marketing campaigns of major sportswear powerhouses such as Nike or Abercrombie & Fitch. He suggested that the solution was not to spend tons of money to let cool-hunters research the next hot youth-driven trend and to then rapidly morph it into seasonal fashion looks and patterns until it became unattractive and mainstream. Instead, for the sake of trend longevity and maturation, he pleaded to work with the kids closely, to have them participate and let their ideas and thinking permanently influence any new design and marketing activity.
Almost ten years later and at the doorstep of a new decade, Rushkoff’s vision is as relevant as never before. With the digital revolution now at hand, we need to work with its young and groundbreaking creators more than ever. Don’t forget that it was youth who invented blogging as an adequate tool to communicate and identify each other individually and independently in an impervious global media jungle. And it was the aching of the youngsters who set virtual social communities such as Twitter and Facebook against the destruction and deprivation of natural family and neighborhood communities and create a social life of their own. Believe me, there are loads of fresh and young ideas out there to make this critical year of 2010 a successful one.
To get you into the loop, Sportswear International has collected the best trends and ideas of “Generation Flat Rate” to make you understand of how the youngsters tick (pgs. 76 ff). Plus as a must-read for this first issue of the new year just ahead of Bread & butter, Premium and Fashion Week Berlin (where I hope to meet many of you with sparkling energy) I recommend our profile on Erke, a rapidly growing Chinese sportswear company that is about to spread out internationally (pg. 70 f). Finally, we help you dismiss some prejudices about Frankfurt, where SI recently relocated its headquarters. It’s generally known as a non-fashion metropolis but our report (pg. 52 f) remarkably proves the contrary. Despite all the unsatisfying news of late, more of which just slipped in from the Copenhagen climate summit, I’m sure we can, if we just dare! All the best for 2010: highest energy, inspiration and wishes for success!

Klaus N. Hang.
Editor & Publisher