Today's Ypulse Guest Post is from Issa Sawabini, who is a partner at Fuse. Full disclosure: Fuse is a Ypulse advertiser and anchor sponsor of the 2008 Ypulse National Mashup. Ypulse Guest Posts are open to anyone working in youth media or marketing. If you have an idea, just email me!

The Rise of House Brands: The Expanding Influence of Streetwear Destinations

Over the past decade, a handful of core lifestyle retailers have flipped the script on convention as their own "house brands" have started to go head-to-head with the big name labels they've traditionally carried, and continue to carry. Supreme, Alife, Dave's Quality Meat (DQM), Reed Space, Huf, and In4mation have all successfully made the leap from specialty shop by day, to leading streetwear brand by night. And interestingly, they've all done it with a little help from an unlikely support system - the competition.

A unique sense of community has always been central to action sports and the surrounding lifestyle. You'd be hard-pressed to find another industry in which competitive brands support one another simply because they realize it's for the good of the entire industry. It's that feeling of brotherhood that has helped specialty retailers grow their business beyond their own walls. With one core retailer willing to carry another core retailer's streetwear collection, and vice versa, both brands grow that much stronger.

In other words, you can walk into Huf in SF and buy DQM apparel, and vice versa.

Take a stroll through the Agenda Tradeshow in San Diego and you'll see how far these brands have come. Alife and Supreme are right there with bigger brands like WESC and Crooks&Castles. Agenda has developed into a real opportunity to showcase these house brands to retail buyers from around the world.

Pick up this month's copy of Vapors Magazine, a progressive publication dedicated to streetwear, skateboarding, art and other areas of youth culture. Flip the pages and you will find ads for In4Mation right next to ad from Jordan, Stussy and Converse. By the way, one of the two collectible covers features a nice representation of the Huf logo crafted from bicycle chains. Huf founder Keith Hufnagle is featured inside.

The buzz around these brands is not limited to just apparel. Each of these brands was boosted by the collaboration craze. In fact the concept of ultra limited edition cross branded product was born inside the doors of these ultra-influential retailers. Sneaker heads wait for days outside of Alife and Huf for a chance to buy co-branded shoes from the likes of Nike and Adidas.

There is perhaps no place as challenging for corporate marketers to venture, as house brands and their followers are keen to tune out mass marketers that come off as inauthentic. Only a select few big brands have been able to successfully align themselves with these retailers and their increasingly popular house brands. Mountain Dew was able to collaborate with Reed Space founder Jeff Staple on the Green Label Art custom bottle project. AT&T Wireless featured ALife's Rivington Club location in a national television campaign. In both cases, these programs provided credibility to the larger brand and in turn provided broad exposure to help the house brands emerge from their retail homes and enter the mindset of today's youth.

Advice for big brands seeking to partner with these influential house brand: Don't try and force a connection, be flexible and keep it authentic.

About Issa:
Issa oversees all service areas at Fuse and specializes in the development and execution of clients' youth targeted marketing strategies. These programs typically include overall branding and strategic initiatives, music and sports events, media events, athlete and artist sponsorships, public relations, grassroots programs, design, web and other customized marketing programs.

Posted by anastasia