Hot Topic

[BruisedRoses]

Pure concintrated sell-out evil, or a cheap accessible shopping outlet?

[keiko]

Pure concintrated sell-out evil, or a cheap accessible shopping outlet?

Umm....Kind of both?
K

[Vempyrik]

cheap decent clothes...

[Amelia G]

Hot Topic destroyed Ghastly Magazine. It hasn't come out since they got screwed by that parasite on our scene.

Hot Topic is one of the main reasons SWAG stopped coming out after such a kick-ass first issue and launch party.

From what a lot of cool clothing companies tell me, Hot Topic forces designers to make cheaper versions of their stuff for Hot Topic stores. So you get Lip Service pants for less money at Hot Topic than at say Retail Slut, but the Retail Slut ones are way better quality.

I have also heard from A LOT of in-the-know sources that Hot Topic will place huge orders with small clothing companies and insist on credit terms and then deliberately be super slow about paying their bills, so the small companies will not be able to afford to go buy materials to supply cool punk rock stores which have been part of the scene for years.

Yes, Hot Topic used to advertise on this site. Yes, they have been a Blue Blood party sponsor. Yes, a number of years ago, Hot Topic sold thousands of Blue Blood T-shirts. But . . . a competitive site was told they could not sell their products in Hot Topic, so they complained to HT buyers about the ads magazines would give me and Forrest for doing photography and scene press which supports the larger community. I don't know whether payola was involved and I probably never will know, but the HT buyer bizarrely decided to be amazingly unpleasant and the whole thing was such a nightmare that it killed yet another cool scene magazine.

I could go into a lot more detail, but those are the basic reasons that store will not be seeing my hard-earned dough. I try to support businesses which support the scene.

[bleedingaway]

I think people are mad about it being "poserish" because it has become so popular...before anyone really knew about it...it was a cool place

[Amelia G]

The issue is not playa hatin. See above.

[karyn]

shopping list

[CPRB]

well i don't go to malls and I support the small shops, plus true punk clothes are DIY, thanks to value village and thrift shops. The whole alternative culture has become a gimic. I go with the old english navy saying....hold fast...hopefully it wont last....I could seriously g o on about this but the less I say the better...just be yourself...that's fucking punkrawk

[CPRB]

oh yeah and uhm Jonath Davis wife is hot.....I have never seen her before...

[Amelia G]

well i don't go to malls and I support the small shops, plus true punk clothes are DIY, thanks to value village and thrift shops. The whole alternative culture has become a gimic. I go with the old english navy saying....hold fast...hopefully it wont last....I could seriously g o on about this but the less I say the better...just be yourself...that's fucking punkrawk

I do enjoy some of the creations of many of the talented designers Forrest and I photograph. I personally regularly wear stuff by Blue Blood's Yolanda who designs for Retail Slut. But you are right, I do miss being able to hit the thrift store or my grandmother's closet and tear something up and put it back together with grommets and safety pins and have where to wear it.

[ForrestBlack]

Having had to show their corporate office every single page of a magazine they are ordering and putting up with their objections, including removing PAID ADS in the magazines because they didn't like the title of a book in the ad, kind of bothers me. The fact that they will trash entire shipments of magazines if they find a pentagram, even if it's someone's tattoo, kind of bothers me. Having had them pressure magazines Amelia and I shot covers for to remove the facial piercings of our models on their covers kind of bothers me. They told Tattoo Savage that they had to stop showing nipples or any tattoos of pentagrams. Savage did their best to comply and went bankrupt shortly thereafter. Now it's mostly reprints of stuff they ran years ago. Having had Hot Topic's corporate people flat out lie about having seen/previewed and approved every single page of a magazine they ordered and later claim the material was inappropriate so they could claim they trashed them instead of sold them kind of bothers me. And yeah, having seen them fuck over Ghastly so hard that it died really bothers me. So yeah, I think their their willingness to try to control the press in our scene is over the line as far as appropriate commerce from a store or chain that wants to sell to our community.

[CPRB]

time for locks on chains and 40's to the ground? one last go around for ol' time sake you pick the place will just show up forrest..but you gotta buy me lunch

[CPRB]

well going back to stores, Toronto has a few and the one I remeber most was in Edmononton, Alberta, it was called Sanctuary the clotseh pices were kinda high but non the less I enjoyed watching my ex, try stuff on. they had some cool books and was i think one of the few places that sol T.U.K.'s As for tatto savage I could of sworn i saw that mag in chapters.....anyhway hello forrest and amelai from way the hell up in Canada

[Tequila Zaire]

They've become a teen girl store these days...haven't stepped foot in one for quite a while since I've heard of the BS they've pulled and strange practices to censor everything. It's PG-13 punk at best.

[Tequila Zaire]

I think people are mad about it being "poserish" because it has become so popular...before anyone really knew about it...it was a cool place

It's a mall store dude...how in any way, shape, or store could it be cool? To even HAVE a store in a mall you need a serious bankroll and some sort of corporate backing.

[Jasperino]

Hot topic is the only store in the mall I go to. Sure it's always full of thirteen year old "spooky kids" but it's got kick ass stickers and it's one of the only places I can find decent band t-shirts. Maybe I'm a sellout but I think I ended up here by following a link that was on a site in a magazine I bought at hot topic. Talk about six degrees of seperation.

[keiko]

Okay so it's "sell out" to shop at HT. But where else am I going to get a punk Hello Kitty shirt that says "If I hear the word cute one more time I'll scream" on it? Not at the sanrio online store, but in the mall at HT. Where am I going to get my balck Hello Kitty batty thong and black and red Dear Danial and Hello Kitty Sneakers and matching Hoodie? (Any one notice a theme here?)
K

[Tequila Zaire]

Okay so it's "sell out" to shop at HT. But where else am I going to get a punk Hello Kitty shirt that says "If I hear the word cute one more time I'll scream" on it? Not at the sanrio online store, but in the mall at HT. Where am I going to get my balck Hello Kitty batty thong and black and red Dear Danial and Hello Kitty Sneakers and matching Hoodie? (Any one notice a theme here?)
K

Perverse fetish with Hello Kitty?

I agree on the band T-Shirt sentiment and easy access to less than easy to find goods...but at the same time it's slowly taken AWAY such goods. Their catalog of items is much diffrent today than it was 2 years ago...much less interesting.

[ForrestBlack]

Hot topic is the only store in the mall I go to. Sure it's always full of thirteen year old "spooky kids" but it's got kick ass stickers and it's one of the only places I can find decent band t-shirts. Maybe I'm a sellout but I think I ended up here by following a link that was on a site in a magazine I bought at hot topic. Talk about six degrees of seperation.

And the link was in that magazine because we support the subcultural magazines a lot, but there are less and less of them around to support because of the business practices of that company. It isn't really six degrees of separation. They want control of what is already there, and if they can't have it, it seems like they do what they can to make sure nobody else can.

[ForrestBlack]

Okay so it's "sell out" to shop at HT. But where else am I going to get a punk Hello Kitty shirt that says "If I hear the word cute one more time I'll scream" on it? Not at the sanrio online store, but in the mall at HT. Where am I going to get my balck Hello Kitty batty thong and black and red Dear Danial and Hello Kitty Sneakers and matching Hoodie? (Any one notice a theme here?)
K

Retail Slut has those. I got a bunch of cute Hello Kitty things there. Even sparkly little devil Hello Kitty t-shirts. Then they even gave me free Hello Kitty bracelets.

[CPRB]

I think maybe you should go dowtown and ask some of the gutter punks where thet get there shirts from, I go to a city called Hamilton to get band shirts, if can't go to a concert to get one, Sonic Unyon, or Rock n' Tees....also most record labels now sell thier stuff online. I mean in shitty ol Canad if I can find this stuff without resorting to a mall and you guys live in California.....christ listen to the college radio punkshows, pick up a "zine" ther may be some ads for alternative shops in there.

[ForrestBlack]

I think it makes the most sense to get the band shirts from the bands. That way you know the money is going back into the scene, not helping someone make their profit projections to prop up their shareholders revenue. Buy the shirts from the merch booth at the shows. That helps fund the cool tours.

Cool t-shirts and magazines like Ghastly used to be sold at the merch booths to help fund tours like the Apparition Tour (w/ Faith and the Muse, Ichor & Malign, etc.) but now the young folks are happy to spend their money in the mall to get small town USA approved clothing and watered down censored magazines. That money used to help finance good art that was meaningful to all of us. Now it just goes into corporate pockets (NASDAQ: HOTT). So the bands don't tour as much and have to promote with free MP3s instead, while the kids spend their money on bullshit Spongebob Squarepants dolls.

[Vempyrik]

nice shirt... lol

[CPRB]

exactley forrest, and people,sometimes those shirts are sold just so that band can have food money and gass money to do the tour...so go to as many shows as you can!!!...god I hope Juxtapoze doesn't vanish..I dunno what peoples feelings are on that mag....but it's one of my favs.....

[tatdownthere]

allot of people where i am like to make theri own shirts and stuff. esp screenprinting which i like a lot. the only people who shop at the hottopics near me in the dc area are total losers or people just getting into it. wish i got to see the apparition tour but too young.

[Amelia G]

Eep. Where in the DC/Baltimore area do they have Hot Topic fungi now?

[OliX]

I like making my own clothes (don't laught!)
I allways try to dress my self different.... I think I'm succeding =)
Sometimes I go around to SecondHand shops and hunt for good stuff (like old school adidas stuff etc.)

[CPRB]

OLI it's damn fun...I loved learning how to sow and make clothes makes me more independent.....and for this hot topic thing.EEEEEEEEEEP it's like west 49th here EEEEEEEEEPPPPP* runs around and passes out*

[Caligula]

I can certainly sympathise. My publisher was really keen to get titles in Hot Topic - apparently the chain doesn't make returns - and had a meet with them at a book fair. But the HT buyer took one look at my books and they weren't interested any more. There's an inherent contradiction in a style-genre that's interested in taboo and pushing the envelope being catered for by a corporation determined to avoid controversy. Money-grabbing pussies.

[Gothickitty]

Id have to say both. They don't have a lot of clothes I like but I have bought a few dresses there.

[bre.star]

I think hot topic is cool to get keychains and car accessories, but other than that I don't like wearing their clothes because everybody else has the same exact thing. I'd much rather shop at small one of a kind stores...haha but sadly I will say my favorite store to get cheap seksi black clothes is Forever 21... most of the girls that shop there will not be caught dead in some of the stuff you can find in there, they have hot lace tops, skirts, jackets... the only time I really shopped at hot topic was freshman year when I was really into the rave scene and I had to buy my big Kik wear fat pants and Carebear shirts...hehe

[memorydream]

Cheap? Not really, unless you live in one of those rare areas where they actually compete with other stores and more than 10 percent of the people make over 25K. I think they have some really neat nick knacks, but not really anything that classy. I think the material of their clothing is very cheap and their employees, but not usually managers, are in the top ten of rude staff. Besides many of the reasons that Amelia has cited, I would advise any of you to learn how to make your own clothes and to please stay away from that place.

[CPRB]

okay I dunno maybe you go to a mall because your incapable of handling the fun of exploring and going out and finding cool stores..I dunno.....maybe yer anti social...but there is absouloutley nothing cool or cheap or awesome about HOT TOPIC....I dunno how hard it is to pic up a phone book and look for Music/record stores, start there...ask around..it's like asking for directions I think....at least there's the male stereotype that doesn't want to ask directions because it dents his ego. Maybe it's cause you look the part and feel you would come across, in your own mind, as not what you appear to be therefore felling guilt.....FUCK IT. In most cases the person won't think anything but that you want to support the scene at it's roots and realise your faux pas and are more then willing to assist. How do I know this? I use to work in an indie record shop and on more then on occasion I would see a very nervouse hip looking person shyly walk in head down trying to look like they new the place existed but new I knew they were in there for the first time. They would shyly come over and ask for ljab;aobbdnofx'h;iahf; and I wold be like yeah we have NOFX in what albumn are ya looking for....soon after being kind and helpful the person would usually become chatty and would usually admit they shopped at HMV or other places but our selection was awesome and they didn't know it existed, the they would ask about local bands and stuff and I was always kind and stoked they found the store and were asking questions....so go out and explore and ask questions and who cares what other people think usually your probably thinking more then the person you think is thinking about you..and support your scene

[mollycase]

Very well said, especially CPRB, ForrestBlack, and AmeliaG. I may not have pink hair any more, but I can still tell when something is really really really not cool.

[Histrionica]

I can certainly sympathise. My publisher was really keen to get titles in Hot Topic - apparently the chain doesn't make returns - and had a meet with them at a book fair. But the HT buyer took one look at my books and they weren't interested any more. There's an inherent contradiction in a style-genre that's interested in taboo and pushing the envelope being catered for by a corporation determined to avoid controversy. Money-grabbing pussies.

Well said Caligula.



~Histrionica~

[skully]

i admit i worked there for awhile (but hey i was young and didn't know better) and it is what set me on my current path...

i still like buying things on super crazy discount prices especially when i seem to put some of the clothes together a little differently then most people.

but yeah just the fact that most of the clothes i would buy there (if i had the money) would leave me looking like at least 5-7 other people on any give club night leaves me saving my money for more specialty places. although there 3-5 dollar compilation cd's have introduced me to alot of good music that i have went out and purchased full cd's for.

[skully]

p.s. i guess the bottom line for me is:
in a store where non-conformity is mass produced i look for the few items that seem to work for me and my style that most people wouldn't be caught dead in. (and those are usually the items on super crazy clearence racks)

[postcoital]

Hot Topic destroyed Ghastly Magazine. It hasn't come out since they got screwed by that parasite on our scene.

Hot Topic is one of the main reasons SWAG stopped coming out after such a kick-ass first issue and launch party.

From what a lot of cool clothing companies tell me, Hot Topic forces designers to make cheaper versions of their stuff for Hot Topic stores. So you get Lip Service pants for less money at Hot Topic than at say Retail Slut, but the Retail Slut ones are way better quality.

I have also heard from A LOT of in-the-know sources that Hot Topic will place huge orders with small clothing companies and insist on credit terms and then deliberately be super slow about paying their bills, so the small companies will not be able to afford to go buy materials to supply cool punk rock stores which have been part of the scene for years.

Yes, Hot Topic used to advertise on this site. Yes, they have been a Blue Blood party sponsor. Yes, a number of years ago, Hot Topic sold thousands of Blue Blood T-shirts. But . . . a competitive site was told they could not sell their products in Hot Topic, so they complained to HT buyers about the ads magazines would give me and Forrest for doing photography and scene press which supports the larger community. I don't know whether payola was involved and I probably never will know, but the HT buyer bizarrely decided to be amazingly unpleasant and the whole thing was such a nightmare that it killed yet another cool scene magazine.

I could go into a lot more detail, but those are the basic reasons that store will not be seeing my hard-earned dough. I try to support businesses which support the scene.

Sounds alot like X-Tra-X, german equivalent of HT.

[Amelia G]

Sounds alot like X-Tra-X, german equivalent of HT.

I thought they were owned by Zillo and were a bit more open-minded and scene-positive?

[Scarlett1313]

Well IMO, I find things in there still on occassion that are surely a great find! I always think back to when they first opened here in the mall almost 10 years ago and I went for broke...some of the best Lip Service stuff was bought there and also when Morbid Threads still had their awesome clothing line, but now its more of a every now and then thing. Weirdest thing though...I was looking for an outfit for my engagement party and I just happened to go in there and they were carrying the brand " Hot Kiss"..weird, is that Macy's and Nordstroms sell that brand. I fell in love with the outfit and bought if for my party. I so did not expect that. It was surely a great find though and I didn't mind that it was coming from Hot Topic.