DON’T CALL ME HYPE BEAST: PERFORMANCE, IDENTITY AND INTERACTION WITHIN THE SNEAKER SUBCULTURE IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

In recent years, much interest has been directed to the growing community of sneaker enthusiasts worldwide. However, academic studies on sneaker cultures have tended to be male-centric and situated only in the West. To circumvent this, my research aims to provide a more well-rounded analysis of the sneaker subculture in Singapore by avoiding these aforementioned pitfalls. Through participant observation at Singapore’s largest sneaker convention ‘Sole Superior’ and semi-structured interviews with 7 sneaker expects, I detail how the sneaker subculture has developed in Singapore from the 1980s to present day. Through this process, I uncover that there are unique strategies that members of the sneaker community in Singapore regularly employ to gain recognition within the subcultural space. Through Bourdieu’s theory of capital, I explicate on the kinds of capital that individuals can utilise to carry out the aforementioned strategies for navigation and position-vying within the subcultural space. Further, by reconceptualising the notion of ‘subcultural capital’, I argue that ‘Performed Authenticity’ serves as a kind of subcultural capital that participants of Singapore’s sneaker subculture actively mobilise to gain recognition in the field. Consequently, I suggest how the construction of ‘Performed Authenticity’ as a form of subcultural capital can reveal wider notions of class, gender and age within Singapore’s sneaker community, and society at large. Ultimately, through my reconceptualization and application of the concept of subcultural capital, I demonstrate how Bourdieu’s concept of capital can be developed to uncover the dynamics of power, conflict and struggle within and beyond subcultural spheres.