Lifestyle Brands

What on earth is a lifestyle brand?

"A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values and aspirations of a group or culture for purposes of marketing"

Thank you Wikipedia. 

My first case study in answering this question is Diamond supply co.

All you need to do is to go onto the Diamond website to see that Diamond do offer items and designs that embody the skate culture which they have always firmly anchored themselves in, offering skateboarding hardware and even selling bolts in a Cannabis grinder. Delving rather deeply into skateboarding's culture and offering solutions that are helpful, whilst still letting skaters buy into Diamond in all aspects of their life.

let me reiterate: ALL ASPECTS OF THEIR LIFE.

Where does this stop being lifestyle marketing and begin being a case of selling just about anything and bumping the prices up because it has a name on it.prime example Diamond's rugs and cushions, just in case you forgot that you skateboarded in the few hours you reside in your home. One clear example of this is the "simplicity is the key to brilliance" rug costing roughly £229 (after conversion) lets have a look...

Pretty ironic given the design is far from simple.but what really hits me, is that this is a nice rug and I would happily have it in my living room however if Simplicity 
really is the key to brilliance surely a plain, simple rug would suffice.Like this extremely soft high pile rug from Ikea. The same dimensions but for next to a quarter of the price.

Carhartt

Also another brand that I feel falls into the category of lifestyle brand is Carhartt. Carhartt, especially Carhartt WIP (Work In Progress), has a maturity about it unlike many other under the vast umbrella of skate/streetwear. whilst offering a lot of simplistic designs that include various types of fabric they also use loud and deep camo prints in there design.

So lets delve deeper than the standard tee shirt or ever-increasingly common thick cuffed beanies. Carhartt offer many solutions to everyday problems. Carhartt actually offers solutions to every problem you may face to, from and in: College, school or work...

That annoyingly loud pre-adolescent on the bus? Headphones.
Need to take notes? Notepads and Pens.
Not quite finished that project? USB that'll fit on a lanyard or phone
Dreading taking your mom's floral Cath Kidson stool while you camp out for the next big drop? Camping Chair.
Fallen asleep on your ever so comfortable $350 Diamond supply co. rug when you have somewhere to be? Alarm clock.

See... any problem, its also worth noting that many of these essentials that Carhartt offer are at an affordable price. My wallet was the cheapest I could find after my favourite Obey Posse wallet fell apart after 6 years and I must admit it's already looking like it'll last much longer.

I suppose they really are the "Rugged Urbanwear" like they occasionally claim.

Pictured: (left) Carhartt Jetlack Alarm Clock, (right) My £18 Carhartt Wallet.
 

Infra...

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."


I've just listened back to a recording of myself from boxing day after I was a pint bottle of Bulmer's, quite a few JD and cokes and copious amounts of wine down, hence the Hunter. S.Thompson quote. It takes two minutes of listening to drunken drivel to actually reach the focus of my "in depth" discussion with my phone... my boxing day purchases especially when all goes silent and I state "Today I have bought some beautiful shoes"

After this the question I ask is one of terminology. What should I call shoes when I talk about them? Because I think the term trainers doesn't seem specific and seems to be the word used by those who don't really under stand, as I'm sure you've all heard "£100 on a pair of trainers?!" and I feel it doesn't reinforce the knowledge or culture behind streetwear. While Sneakers seems quite an american and cringey term that seems a little too risqué for a little unimportant blog like this one. Ill settle for sneakers and if "sneakerism" were a religion and shoe with an infrared colourway would make it a holy artifact. Which in respect to Nike make any of the Air Max 90 Infrareds the holy grail of sneaks.

But yes £100 is what I spent on my Nike Air Max 90 OG Vintage Infrared which I think is a good deal considering all places selling them for less had them in a January release and by the time I had money in my bank many pre-sales had ran out. So to get my shoes at least 5 days early I queued up in JD Sports on boxing day amongst the cretinous customers all pushing to spend their Christmas and dole money on some new 95s, PTs or Air Pegasus 89s... god I hate Air Pegasus, but I digress.

Following the hellish excursion for food supplies for the day and that sweet, sweet IR we faced the second ordeal of the British public transport system, all in search of some accessories and clothes to set off my new sneaks. My first port of call was the Candy Store where I bought one of this seasons staples: a thick cuffed beanie (Carhartt) and I finally gave in to the camo trend that assaulted fashion this year like the military that it was designed for, with a grey camo tee (Benny Gold).

But on one final, none vain, note you have the patience, creative drive and money you could customise yourself (through Nike ID) some spiz'ikes with some of that critically acclaimed Infrared, whic has also been underplayed by nike, but lets face it they dont need the "spare change"