Cyber Awesome Merchandiser 2020

 

hey what's up this is a fort paper here

 

more so than ever it feels like there is

 

a divide within tech where there's two

 

different sites so the point of this

 

video is really to identify what those

 

two sides might be and then talk a

 

little bit about why that might have

 

happened and some of the resulting

 

effects because of that for a lot of

 

people when they think tech where they

 

might think the kind of outfits that

 

somebody likes car Lord might wear not

 

only is he the self-proclaimed king of

 

tech wear but if you go through hashtag

 

tech well on Instagram with over a

 

hundred thousand posts now your fines

 

not only photos of him popping up but

 

other things that have a very similar

 

aesthetic and a similar look it's pretty

 

likely the places like these are your

 

first experiences with tech WA but then

 

you look a little bit deeper you look

 

into those dedicated tech where

 

communities places like the tech wear

 

clothing subreddit and some of the most

 

highly up voted outfits there it feels

 

like there's a little bit of a disparity

 

it feels like there's a lot missing

 

where the cyberpunk or ninja props where

 

are all of these straps and belts and

 

like tactical pockets and that kind of

 

thing you might assume that those

 

dedicated communities are going to be

 

curating the peek of the best examples

 

of what tag wear is and yet it feels

 

certainly to the casual observer that

 

somebody like Skaar Lord like someone

 

who might pop up on a hashtag Tech where

 

is pushing the aesthetic much further

 

and in fact the output from those

 

communities is so different that you

 

could consider it a separate aesthetic

 

altogether particularly when those

 

places tend to take a pretty dim view of

 

mister Lord and Friends and here lies

 

the duality you have hashtag tech where

 

on one side and the enthusiast community

 

on the other side but what causes that

 

to exist exactly I feel like there are

 

two main reasons behind that and one of

 

them is exclusive to tech web tech where

 

is unlike any other kind of fashion

 

sub-genre really in that there's an

 

extra dimension or an extra criteria for

 

judgement and that is in the form of

 

utility and in performance if you know a

 

bit about tech we're all ready then

 

you'll know that that is exactly the

 

style you go for things that are

 

flexible utilitarian what's also being

 

futuristic and cool

 

whatever to and really part of the

 

difference comes to the way that that

 

performance and that utility is judged

 

so for some of the importance is placed

 

on the things that you can't see the

 

quality of the material the brand of

 

material even the hardware that's being

 

used the functionality how appropriate

 

that functionality is to the scenario

 

you're in how hot or how cold an outfit

 

might be anything like that whereas to

 

another crowd it's the visual aspect of

 

the performance that's most important so

 

for example more straps that means more

 

different ways that you can change your

 

outfit by doing or undoing stuff which

 

is extra functionality right and more

 

pockets that means more places to store

 

different things and to make different

 

uses of the same outfit and yes of

 

course water resistance or weatherproof

 

clothing that kind of thing is important

 

for both sides but for one there's much

 

more enthusiasm towards the actual

 

materials used and the level of

 

functionality and for others it's the

 

fact that it is waterproof to some

 

degree so essentially there's a

 

difference between the judgment of

 

performance on one hand and judgment of

 

the appearance of performance on the

 

other and yes those ideas are clearly

 

very closely related but the execution

 

of those ideas can differ so for one

 

crowd quite a plane or minimal looking

 

jacket might be acceptable or even very

 

desirable if it has the right

 

characteristics and the right

 

performance aspect

 

whereas for another that's going to be

 

too plain too boring and you'll want

 

something else that has more pockets on

 

it more straps more detailing and more

 

ways that it can be paired with other

 

military or cyberpunk clothing so to me

 

that's one reason why tech wear can

 

inherently cause this tribal split but I

 

think there's another thing going on

 

here as well and this is something that

 

isn't just related to tech wear but can

 

be related to all kinds of fashion and

 

in fact people's lives in general and

 

that is the algorithmic nature of social

 

media I'm not going to make this a big

 

social media video essay or anything

 

like that

 

but very simply algorithms will favor

 

content which can grab people's

 

attention

 

and do it visually and do it quickly and

 

where tekwar is concerned to a wider

 

audience

 

what image is going to be more

 

appealing and what image is gonna

 

capture people's attention is it

 

something that's a very very loud very

 

over-the-top maybe makes use of props

 

maybe has some really crazy background

 

that enhances the aesthetic the people

 

were trying to push or is it a more

 

low-key outfit something that maybe

 

first glance doesn't look that special

 

but then has some hidden performance

 

aspects or some interesting elements or

 

some cool brand that maybe a lot of

 

people haven't heard of but is in fact

 

very luxurious and very exclusive and

 

that's a self-fulfilling prophecy the

 

more content that comes out there but a

 

wider audience can engage with very very

 

quickly without having to do any

 

research into whether things are cool or

 

high-performance or not the more likes

 

that it's going to get the more accounts

 

will repost content like that and thus

 

the more people will be interested in

 

creating that content because they know

 

that it's going to be more popular and