via Quiksilver
I believe there are two schools of thought when it comes to digesting overly-nostalgic marketing stunts.
Nostalgia overload
That it’s wildly overdone; that nostalgia overload often leads to nostalgia ennui. Remember the dud that was That 80s Show or the 2018 return of Zima – a comeback that no one seemingly asked for that failed to take hold? When a company brings back the fashion, music, movies, TV shows, video games, or flavors of the past to capitalize on our collective memories, it usually feels like it’s due to a lack of imagination.
Culture, after all, is an organism of popular consciousness. Ideally, culture evolves. It moves on; it marches forward.
Originality in the present moment has to stand for something. Otherwise, it’s just overly contrived noise – A gimmick for gimmick’s sake.
Often, these nostalgia-obsessed marketing moments feel like lame PowerPoint decks brought to life by people who go to work in open office advertising farms, not true celebrations of such an era when that product was a reflection of the times.
Nostalgia done right
Every once in a blue moon, nostalgia plays.
And when it plays, it plays really, really well, to a really big audience. Take, for example, the breakaway success of Top Gun: Maverick 35 years after the original or the triumphant return of the Ford Bronco. Neither the movie nor SUV tries too hard. Nor are they obsessed with kitsch to the point where it’s overwhelming. They have the DNA of their past selves while existing in a way that’s completely new and modern. They stand on their own two legs as wildly creative concepts, drawing from their past rather than consuming themselves with it.
Nostalgia, when done right, can be a clever celebration, not an empty glimpse in the rearview mirror.
When all the cultural stars align, nostalgia – at its best – becomes heritage.
Why did Stranger Things collab with Quiksilver?
There’s nothing hacky about Quiksilver’s ’80s-collab with Stranger Things.
It honors and builds. It’s fun. It feels remarkably fresh compared to the slap-a-logo-on-it licensing collabs that have thrived in the digital media age.
—
Three years ago, Netflix started noodling on California as the backdrop for Stranger Things Season Four – the show’s final season. A vision for the season’s look and feel began to take hold, with a lens focused on the fictional town of Lenora Hills.
Set in 1986, costuming for Stranger Things Season Four would lean into period pieces that defined SoCal surf culture at the time. Hence, characters dripped out in ’80s Quiksilver in Season Four.
“Quiksilver was an integral part of California fashion in the 1980s,” Stranger Things Costume Designer Amy Parris explains via press release.
“The show is so true to the period that it only made sense to infuse Quiksilver archive pieces through the show this season. I hope the clothes will resonate with a younger audience who is inspired by the fashions back then and be a friendly reminder to the stylish viewers who followed fashion in the ’80s.”
See, surfing is Quiksilver’s heritage. The collab even comes with a Stranger Things-themed surfing edit featuring the brand’s pro riders.
In the 1970s and ’80s, the label mainstreamed the funky, vibrant styles of California beachwear to surf-and-skate obsessed teenagers via the Great American shopping mall. To this day, they sponsor some of the surfing’s most elite athletes and ambassadors, including Jeremy Flores and Mikey Wright.
In a press release, Quiksilver Product Director Andrew Henry details how closely the brand worked with Netflix’s creative team, resulting in a clothing collab that breaks the proverbial fourth wall.
“Working so closely with the Stranger Things costume designer has been such a unique and special collaborative journey,” Henry explains.
“We’ve been able to revive classic styles from the 1986 and 1987 Quik archive to align with Stranger Things 4, creating specific apparel for cast members and consumers alike. We’re excited to tell Quiksilver’s story through this season of Stranger Things and reach a new audience through the lens of a show they know and love.”
Quiksilver x Stranger Things: A collection inspired by California surf culture in the 1980s.
The Quiksilver x Stranger Things collab has five unique collections.
Let’s break it down:
1986 & The Upside Down
A collect that puts a modern spin on Quiksilver’s iconic 1986 archival designs. In the spirit of Stranger Things, Quiksilver also flips each item Upside Down, revealing an ominous underbelly. Think: A mix of shirts, shorts, and boardshorts that are both bright, playful, and vibrant mixed with dark and mysterious.
SEE MORE VIA QUIKSILVER.COM
The Character Wardrobe
These are the Quiksilver pieces that you see onscreen in Stranger Things Season Four. This collection took three years to perfect, dipping into Quiksilver’s archives from back in the day. It includes the button-down short-sleeve shirts worn by Mike Wheeler (as played by Finn Wolfhard), along with the electric ’80s ‘fits featured on Argyle, portrayed by Eduardo Franco – one of Season Four’s standout new characters.
SEE MORE VIA QUIKSILVER.COM
Surfer Boy Pizza
Quiksilver designed the employee pizza shop uniforms for Surfer Boy Pizza, a fictional pizza joint featured in Stranger Things Season Four. The outfits are a throwback to the vintage pizza shop merch of yesteryear: Bright red pizza logos printed on bright yellow shirts and hats.
It’s exactly the kind of pizza place you can imagine a bunch of surfers slinging pies at while saving cash for their next surf trip.
SEE MORE VIA QUIKSILVER.COM
Lenora Hills Surf Club
A capsule of bright ’80s surf shop merch that celebrates the show’s new setting.
SEE MORE VIA QUIKSILVER.COM
Hellfire Surf Club
IYKYK. The Hellfire Club is a reference to a Dungeons & Dragons group at Hawkins High, revealed in the first episode of Season Four. This is Quiksilver’s surf take on the Hellfire Club shirts seen in the show.
Without giving away too much, the collection comes in the spirit of some good, old fashion Tipper Gore-era moral panic.