The Tricky Business of Betting on Trends
I remember a time when a trend took a while to get going. You’d see something bubble up in a subculture, it would slowly seep into the high street, and by the time your dad was wearing it, the moment had well and truly passed. Today, culture moves at the speed of a thumb-flick. A dance on TikTok can become a global phenomenon in 48 hours, and a character in a streaming series can create a worldwide demand for a particular brand of trainers overnight. It’s exhausting.
For most businesses, this acceleration is a terrifying prospect. For a select few, however, it’s the entire business model. These are the companies that don’t just follow trends, they hunt them. They’ve built their entire operations around spotting what’s next, pouncing on it, and monetising it before the rest of us have even realised it’s a thing. It’s a fascinating, if slightly dizzying, corner of the market.