The collection

One of my friend group chats was dunking on Funko Pops, a thing that I aggressively have no opinion on, when we got to discussing the drain we circle so often in text: hypebeasts.

The drop is real. It has such a psychic weight to it. We connect to the collective by showing what we copped. It is not enough to broadcast our signifiers on the ‘gram. We have to signify that we have acquired signifiers, and then we have to signify with the signifiers.

What matters, of course, is how we signify in the real world. But people rarely wear drops out. Collections are accrued. You can go online and buy a pair of Nike shoes right now, but those Nike shoes, over there, with the colors and patterns in a way that is just so, have an aura. Exclusivity implies coolness, or perhaps youth, and so.

Now that nature is healing, there is a new ritual, which is the feeling that happens upon you when you go visit someplace’s house and stumble upon their collection. Of course, this is just a regurgitation of the 2019 ritual, now shot through with the idea that people really do care this much and in this way about objects.