- Identify 4 different “Consumer Zeitgeist” trends (no more than 2 technology trends).

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is named after its function: machines that try to mimic humans’ cognitive functions to solve problems. The term “AI” was first used by John McCarthy in 1956 and soon after an article was written about machines that simulated human beings by playing chess (Peart). In 2000, Honda released ASIMO, which was an AI humanoid robot. However, the robot was too expensive and people could not use the robot efficiently in a real life.

Today, many companies try to attract current and future customers with AI. AI products, such as Google Home and iRobot’s vacuuming robot, have become common in households across the world and can be seen as time savers for day-to-day activities. Google Home has a voice recognition function so it can tell you about the weather and turn off the lights. iRobot’s vacuuming robot can clean your house’s floor by itself when you go to work or school. In comparison with AI products from 2000, today’s AI products are much better quality, cheaper, and faster. “The global AI market was pegged at $4.06 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $169.41 billion by 2025” (MarketWatch). This is in stark contrast to 2000, where there was a small AI market.

Minimalism

Today, many people tend to follow the minimalist lifestyle movement, which is the belief that “less is more.” This trend is very different than the early 2000s, when people tended to fill their homes with things. According to the article by the NONAGON style team, “In the early 2000s, entertainment formed an important part of the home. Televisions did start to slim down put along with music systems, they still dominated rooms and they all had a lot of wires” (NONAGON). However, today people tend to have less furniture because it’s good for the environment and their psychological relaxation. Marie Kondo’s show, available for streaming on Netflix, became a cultural phenomenon in the United States, leaving many viewers wanting to get rid of items that “did not spark joy.”

The most popular minimalist lifestyle brand is MUJI. It is a Japanese brand which sells clothes and home goods. The brand emphasizes recycling and minimalist in their design. “With MUJI products, customers get a minimal, gets-the-job-done kind of product, made from simple ingredients with little to no extra frill” (Whang). Therefore, as you walk into the store, the design is very simple and does not use a lot of colors. Another minimalist lifestyle brand is ARTIFOX. ARTIFOX has a limited catalog of simple and functional items, such as desks, shelves, and cable holders. “Guided by the notion of less but better, ARTIFOX products are made to be adaptable while maintaining a clean, simple aesthetic” (Warshauer).

Street fashion

Nowadays, street fashion has become more and more popular. We can see a lot of young people and celebrities are wearing street fashion brands. There are a lot of well known brands such as off-white, supreme, palace and so on.

Off-white is founded in 2012 by Virgil Abloh, it is one of the famous street fashion brands right now. And since march 2018 the funder Virgil Abloh has been the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s wear collection (Friedman and Paton, 2020). Also the LVMH fashion group wants to take a stake in Milan-based New Guard Group which is the owner of a variety of street fashion brands including off-white and heron preston (TFL, 2020). Another street fashion brand is Supreme, which was funded by James Jebbia in 1994. The supreme has lots of hype and classical street fashion designs. And it is well known by its box logo. The retail price for box logo hoodie is 168USD, and the resale price is over 800USD. Supreme did a collaboration with Rimowa which is a luxury luggage brand owned by LVMH. The supreme and Rimowa luggage sold out in three seconds. Therefore, Supreme’s future acquirers could include a strategic investor like the French luxury conglomerate LVMH (ALEXEI KANSARA, 2020).

Esports

The esports are getting more and more popular right now. “eSports describes the world of competitive, organized video gaming. Competitors from different leagues or teams face off in the same games that are popular with at-home gamers. These gamers are watched and followed by millions of fans all over the world, who attend live events or tune in on TV or online”(Willingham, 2020).

There are a lot of popular games right now, what I played a lot is LOL and Overwatch. These two games have a large group of players from different ages and countries. Also, millions of people will watch professional players competing with each other. The 2017 League of Legends World Championship drew more than 80 million viewers, making it one of the most popular eSports competitions ever (Goslin, 2020). Overwatch was released at may 24, 2016 owned by Blizzard Entertainment. Last year’s final competition was held at WellsFargo Center at Philadelphia. “The prize pool for the Overwatch League playoffs sits at $3.5 million, split amongst the top eight teams. The winning team this weekend will walk away with $1.1 million, while the runner up will receive $600,000” (Ozzie, 2020).

References

ALEXEI KANSARA, V. (2020). How Supreme Grew a $1 Billion Business with a Secret Partner. Retrieved 26 January 2020, from https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/bof-exclusive/supreme-grew-1-billion-business-with-secret-partner

Friedman, V. and Paton, E. (2020). Louis Vuitton Names Virgil Abloh as Its New Men’s Wear Designer. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/business/louis-vuitton-virgil-abloh.html

Goslin, A. (2020). More than 80 million people watched the Worlds 2017 semifinals. Retrieved 26 January 2020, from https://www.riftherald.com/lol-worlds/2017/12/19/16797364/league-of-legends-worlds-viewers-statistics

LVMH Looking to Take a Stake in Off-White, Heron Preston Parent Co. New Guards Group, Per Reports — The Fashion Law. (2020). Retrieved 26 January 2020, from https://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/lvmh-looking-to-take-a-stake-in-off-white-heron-preston-parent-co-new-guards-group-per-wwd

NONAGON, Furniture Guide: Design From the Early 2000s. (2018, September 4). Retrieved from https://nonagon.style/furniture-guide-trends-naughties-design-2000s/

MarketWatch, M. (2019, October 28). Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market 2019 – Analysis, Size, Business Growth, Trends and Projections by 2025. Retrieved from https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/artificial-intelligence-ai-market-2019-analysis-size-business-growth-trends-and-projections-by-2025-2019-10-28

Ozzie, M. (2020). Overwatch League 2019 Finals: Prize pool, schedule, and how to watch. Retrieved 26 January 2020, from https://www.shacknews.com/article/114197/overwatch-league-2019-finals-prize-pool-schedule-and-how-to-watch

Peart, A. (2017, June 2). Homage to John McCarthy, the Father of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Conversational AI Platform - Teneo: Artificial Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.artificial-solutions.com/blog/homage-to-john-mccarthy-the-father-of-artificial-intelligence

Warshauer, A. (2017, March 13). Our Story. Retrieved from https://theartifox.com/pages/about

Whang, V. (2019, February 17). Minimalism and why we love MUJI so much. Retrieved from https://medium.com/thoughts-from-designx/minimalism-and-why-we-love-muji-so-much-4409a88f7089