Maybe our society is much more self-conscious than we have assumed!
Drawing from the Hush Puppies Phenomenon, which parallels the Airwalk story described in The Tipping Point, our society often does recognize that certain things are relatively less mainstream than others, and specifically chooses to value them more because of this very fact. Hush Puppies became wildly popular because they started out as a niche product that only appealed to certain types of people. However, when they became popularized, the ‘elitist’ feel of the product diminished, and Hush Puppies faded away again as an ‘uncool’ product. Airwalk learned this lesson when their rare specialty shoes caught onto society, and suddenly became really ‘cool.’ Originally, such specialty shoes were only sold in underground shoe stores, which only certain groups of people had knowledge of. However, when Airwalk made the mistake of taking these shoes to mainstream stores, such as Macy’s and Foot Locker, Airwalks lost all their appeal, and the brand quickly faded afterwards.
In an intensely urban culture, people tend to chase after the ‘long tail’ items in life; perhaps it is the only way for them to find identity and differentiate themselves from the rest.
