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Life After Lifestyle
Products begin their life as an unbranded commodities made in foreign factories; they pass through a series of outsourced relationships —brand designers, content creators, and influencers—which construct a cultural identity for the good; in the final phase, the product ends up in a shoppable social media post. Each step, a service rendered that tur... See more
Toby • Life After Lifestyle
Over time, I have reached more conviction that truly meaningful “branded subculture” is not only possible, not only inevitable, but in fact preferable to the status quo. Yet I know that is exactly what the marketers reading this want to hear. I’ve feared that talking about this is might encourage companies to do what they’re already doing better. M
... See moreToby Shorin • Life After Lifestyle
Mass culture itself has become a subculture — a sort of sideshow to the real action,
Toby Shorin • Life After Lifestyle
The 2010s is what I want to call the era of Lifestyle. You know what it felt like, because you lived through it. And I did too. Since 2014 I have lived in New York, inside the machine where Lifestyle is made. Spending my waking moments moving through these branded experiences, I felt they they pointed to something I could say but not name.
Toby Shorin • Life After Lifestyle
In the 2010s, supply chain innovation opened up lifestyle brands. In the 2020s, financial mechanism innovation is opening up the space for incentivized ideologies, networked publics, and co-owned faiths.
Toby Shorin • Life After Lifestyle
People are always seeing and being seen, and in some ways, owning products does constitute one form of cultural participation. Yet it is also clear that owning goods alone is not a really significant sort of participation.
Toby Shorin • Life After Lifestyle
All in all, product marketing businesses can only do so much to situate their goods in these broader cultural worlds without eating into their margins.
Toby Shorin • Life After Lifestyle
Jenny Odell’s wonderful book How To Do Nothing
subpixel.space • Life After Lifestyle
As I struggled with these thoughts early on, I wanted to explore what it would mean for brands and subcultures to merge more fully, to offer a much deeper and richer meaning. This set me on a quest to learn about cults. I read about organizations which were abusive and manipulative, but which still managed to create meaningful practices that weren’... See more