ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
In collaboration with Claudia Tizón, Maria Jose Heshiki and Mae White
This project consisted of deeply researching a specific group using different research techniques. For this project, we chose to discover more about Hypebeasts located in the city of Madrid. During the first phase of this project, we did Desktop Research: reading online articles, mapping out "hypebeast" stores, and used the internet to learn more about what this group consisted of. Then we moved on to Fieldwork.
This phase started by doing Participant Observation in the stores we had previously mapped. We visited each of the stores and wrote down certain behaviors and details. We watched and analyzed the amount of people that came into the store, the age range, prices, and overall behavior of the customers and staff.
After doing participant observation we went on to Mystery Shop in the same stores as before. We pretended to be interested in buying certain sneakers, dressed like hypebeasts, and emerged ourselves head first into their world.
After Fieldwork, we interviewed three Hypebeasts we found in order to get their insights and try to understand the "why" of their overall interest in fashion and why they choose to express their personality through it.
Having done all the research needed, we collected the data and started analyzing our final outcomes of this research process. Our main insights included: Hypebeasts opened the door for men's fashion market, its an extremely exclusive community, hypebeasts would rather call themselves "collectors", and the design of stores affects customers behavior.
