Hoodies By Georg Simmel Generalization, And Track Athletes

For the essay, I have chosen to conduct an analysis on Hoodies. Firstly I will discuss the background of hoodies, who they were originally aimed at and marketed towards. I will then move onto analysing the relationship the product has in regards to specific identities, communities, places and ideas and what types of consumer theories are specifically linked to the consumption of hoodies.

Hoodies were first created during the 1920-1930’s by the US clothing manufacturer ‘Champion’ in order to protect labour workers from the cold (Pitel and Tookey, 2011). However, it was soon adopted by footballers and track athletes during the mid-1930’s in order to attenuate the discomfort of sweating in a wool jersey. As many footballers and athletes are

Georg Simmel’s fashion theory suggests that each individual exhibits two tendencies, one is the tendency to generalise and the other is the tendency to specialise (Charlwood, 2015). Simmel cited by Benevenuto (2000) suggested that the tendency to generalise usually takes place due to the admiration of a certain individual or lifestyle and the need/desire to imitate these individuals. However, the tendency to specialise usually takes place due to an individual wanting to differentiate themselves from certain individuals (whom they most likely despise). Simmel cited by Benevenuto (2000) expressed that all individuals combine the tendencies to specialise and generalise in order to have both social equalisation and individual differentiation. Simmel’s fashion theory can be applied to the consumption of hoodies. The fact that the hoodies were adopted by the hip hop culture shows this. Individuals who associated with hip hop and hip hop culture began to consume hoodies in an attempt to imitate the hip hop artists and rappers they loved. However, many other individuals who beforehand, commonly wore hoodies such as individuals who are of a certain status or class began to wear hoodies less as they wanted to differentiate themselves from those associated with the hip hop and rapping

This music would appeal to the target audience which was mainly young black boys and men as they would be able to identify with the lyrics. As a result of this, much black youth incorporated hip hop as a form of cultural capital in everyday life and within their interactions with other young black individuals. Black youth incorporate even to this day, hip hop as cultural capital in everyday life in a variety of ways. Bourdieu (1986) cited by Tierney (2016) suggested that cultural capital comes in three forms, embodied, objectified and institutionalised. Much black youth use hip hop as embodied cultural capital by the particular slang and dialect that use which is significantly linked to hip hop culture and found in many rap songs. Many also use hip hop as an institutionalised cultural capital, for example, many rappers talk about their status in the streets with many references to drugs and crime. Many young black males try to imitate and incorporate this “status” into their everyday lives, although many do not. Many young black males also use hip hop as objectified cultural capital in everyday life