“Dubai chocolate matcha Labubu rave.” Six months ago, no one would have thought you could string together a sentence like that and even have an event based on those things, but because of microtrends, that phrase is dominating pop culture. The core of a microtrend is novelty; it creates its own urgency because it only lasts for a few months or years before losing its shine, unlike typical trends which endure for longer. Unless the microtrend focuses on consumables, the bulk of what you actually buy from microtrends ends up in dumps, never degrading and contributing to the world’s endless sea of pollution. While little toys and treats might be popular in the moment, their long-term detrimental impact far outweighs the points you get from being in with the latest fast fashion-esque trend.
The current consumable microtrend among Gen Z is Labubu dolls, and how consumers treat them after the trend dies will shape the future of microtrends and sustainability. Labubus are one of many blind box figures sold by Pop Mart, along with Skull Pandas, Hironos and Peach Riot figures. The company encourages consumers to buy as many as possible to get the specific thing they want — imagine it as you rolling in Genshin Impact for your favorite five-star character, except with a much higher rate of success and you actually get something physical for all the money spent. Although these figures are extremely popular, Labubus have risen above the rest. Somewhere around late 2024, their popularity grew exponentially in the U.S., leading to people waiting outside malls for hours in the early morning to even have a chance to buy a figure.
These hideous little toys’ original form is actually extremely cute, but their consumerist final forms make them look like ugly baboons. Around UTD campus, you can see them hanging on people’s bags, at the mall you can see rip-offs being sold and there are rave events being hosted based on them. Outside of my dislike for their design and how scalpers treat them, with nearly a 100% markup for a doll’s average price on eBay, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting a figure on your bag. But when the trend dies and the Labubu isn’t fashionable anymore, it will likely end up rotting in a landfill or polluting the ocean.
You may remember Sonny’s Angels, adorable little naked angel figures that were trendy around summer 2024. They were also blind box figures, but now that they aren’t as popular and have been replaced, they go in the trash. You may not think much about it, but the little Hippers on people’s phones have been replaced over time, and unless they’re collecting dust in some corner of your room, people throw the little plastic figures away. Plastic is not biodegradable; 80% of these things are sitting in a landfill with the maid outfit you bought in 2020 to bait for TikTok likes and your old Hydro Flask. These items pollute the environment and can even directly harm wildlife.
Trends are a natural thing in life; we learn of new things that many people think are cool, so we join in to belong. Young people are more likely to participate in them. There is not necessarily anything wrong with wanting to have fun, but social media and the Internet have significantly changed how people engage with trends. Now, you have a short time to hop on the latest thing to fit in before someone calls you ”unc” for still engaging in something from 2023. You may think that you don’t fit into this because you are in an alternative subculture, but even those spaces aren’t safe from quick-moving material trends.
Fast fashion is known to be bad for the environment and exploitative of cheap labor, but the term doesn’t apply just to everyday clothing. Cosplayers may accidentally fall into this, wanting to quickly cosplay from the latest anime airing or as the most recently released Marvel Rivals character and turning to Miccocostumes or AliExpress to buy it. Perhaps you want to go to a concert, but you decide to buy a whole new outfit for it, which ends up not being used again after the event. These are examples of microtrends, but in an alternative subspace from the mainstream.
Despite pushback against wastefulness in microtrends, a majority of social media users will still fall into them because there has been a cultural shift. Microtrends are more acceptable and harder to escape than ever because of social media reaching millions of viewers at once, and as soon as one person says something isn’t cool anymore, it is gone. The only way to avoid this is by refusing to let formerly-trendy items rot after six months. Restyle that same shirt, use the same cosplays at different conventions, and display your figures, clean them up. Don’t fall for companies pushing themselves onto you to buy as much as you can for something you won’t use. Even if you buy into a trend, don’t be ashamed. Realize what you did and next time, you can reassess how you see that hot new item. You should make sure you’re ready to engage with what you consume in for a long time and fightback against short attention spans that profit off us forgetting the damage our purchasing habits can do to the world around us.