MZ just flex it

Teenagers and 2030’s FLEX Culture

In 1990s, ‘FLEX’, or the act of embellishing whole body with gold, jewelries, and luxury goods caught on among African American rappers. Since then, showing off their wealth become popular among the hiphop rappers. One day, one Youtuber began to create a video about the content of ‘FLEX’. This made the wordphrase “Oh, I just flexed it.” fashionable. With the contents that I mentioned, many K-pop idols began to put on luxury clothes more often while performing on the stage and also after the stage. Through these trends, it became more easy to see the young people doing FLEX.

Luxury Hall of Lotte Department Store Main Store

Expanding Luxury Goods Market and Diversified kinds of Luxury Goods

As the 2030 generations accumulate their wealth through virtual currency, stock, and real estate, their consumption of luxury goods has increased. However, this is very tiny piece of it. If they didn’t earn profits through stock, they would have buy luxury goods with money which was supposed to be used in other stuff. According to the Brand Preference Survey towards women, the 1st place was ‘Channel’, and ‘Gucci’ and ‘Louis Vuitton' followed behind it. The survey towards men, 1st was ‘Stone Island’ and ‘Balenciaga’, ‘Gucci’, and ‘Rolex’ followed behind it.

Currently, in the case of ‘CHANEL’, which is the brand that women prefer the most, even small bags cost from 5,000,000won to over 10,000,000won and it is burdensome for ordinary people to purchase them. A short sleeve t-shirt of GUCCI costs around 700,000 won, and a pair of shoes of Louis Vuitton costs around 1,500,000 won. It is not easy to buy those products when the average monthly expenditure per unmarried employee in 2020 is 860,000 won and 1,500,000won per married employee. During the recession caused by covid 19, sales of luxury brands increased, private stores were held for increased VIP customers. Even when butcher's shops were closed down, demand for ‘luxury beef’, which department stores sell, increased.

In the past, consumers of luxury products were mostly middle-aged class in their forties and fifties. Generations that could afford luxury products purchased them. However, today, the main consumers of luxury products are the twenties and thirties, even teenagers consume luxury products. Then, why are they so enthusiastic about luxury products? The main cause is the ‘desire to show off. By showing luxury products that they have, they want to show off their value.

The debate over luxury consumption

As the consumption of luxury products increases, opinions about the consumption behavior are diversifying. Some argue that spending luxury products is ‘valuable conscious consumption’. One reason is that spending luxury products consuming what is valuable, and consuming things we chose that fit our values. Another reasons is that luxury products can be used for a long time. Meanwhile, some argue that several teenagers, and 2030 who spend luxury products improperly for their income level are extravagant. Especially, in case of some teenagers who get their allowance, their parents that usually support the economy are difficult.

The right function of luxury products is to provide ‘differentiated products’, meeting people’s needs. However, it increased a sense of comparative deprivation and psychological wealth gap, whose backgrounds are negative factors like comparative psychology, jealousy, inferiority, and sympathy on spending. It’s not that spending luxury products are bad. Employment has also increased due to the increased consumption rate of luxury goods. Some said that they felt their self-esteem rise through luxury consumption and that they gained the effect of increasing their confidence so that they could stand tall to others. People with sensitive skin may gain skin health by using cosmetics from luxury brands consisting of relatively mild and better ingredients than regular brands. Concerns about harmful factors such as the use of industrial materials can also be eased compared to inexpensive brands.

Previously, investment technology was mainly made up of real estate, funds, and stocks. On the other hand, "luxury financial technology" such as Shatech and Rolltech, which benefit from keeping luxury products clean and long and reselling them, has also been activated. As a result, various luxury and used markets are expected to emerge in the future, and demand is also expected to continue to increase demand.

English Translate / MFLHS TED