Back-to-school Gen Alpha is already having to watch its back from hallway menaces—literally. Teenagers are unlooping the zipper pulls on peers’ Nike Elite backpacks, which retail for $87, stealing them for their own collections or reselling them back to theft victims at lofty prices.
The logic behind the prank is perhaps predictable for a generation whose frontal lobes are not yet developed: “It’s fun to steal,” one TikTok commenter said.
TikToks showing off collections of stolen zipper pulls have garnered millions of views. Those opting out of the clout-seeking videos—often updated daily with an exponentially growing stockpile of zipper pulls—are lording zipper pulls over unlucky Nike Elite owners. Bag bandits are reselling the pulls for up to $40.
Students have resorted to supergluing the zipper pulls onto their backpacks or removing the pulls altogether. Per comments on TikTok, some schools have banned the Nike backpacks. Nike did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Gen Alpha’s extreme lengths to make a couple dollars and garner only clout may have something to do with the generation’s obsession with brands. Look no further than the Stanley tumbler, a $45 insulated mug that became so popular that middle schoolers swarmed students with the cup, cementing it as an instant status symbol.
Teens targeting Nike as their next obsession isn’t surprising. Nike ranks among teens’ favorite brands, according to a May report from PR firm DKC, with one in four parents saying their kids love the swoosh. Winning over the generation could be key to brands like the troubled Nike; Gen Alpha is expected to have a $5.46 trillion economic footprint by 2029, surpassing that of Gen Z and millennials combined.
But Gen Alpha’s love of viral brands and collectible trinkets is inextricable from their digital-native status. Those born in 2010 and later spend over two hours online shopping per week on average, seeking out brands built on hype and status. Companies have capitalized on this, planting ads and shopping platforms on Gen Alpha’s favorite social media and gaming platforms like Roblox. It’s no wonder that the youngest generation is so adept at identifying brand excitement, according to social researcher Mark McCrindle, who coined the term “Gen Alpha.”
“It’s a highly sophisticated generation having been exposed to messaging and brand influence at the youngest age,” McCrindle told Ad Age. “They interact with brands that might be beyond their particular targeting because they’ve got access to information and content consumption beyond their age, which makes them very brand conscious.”
Though covetous of certain products, trends surrounding brands are often a flash in the pan, according to Casey Lewis, Gen Z consumer analyst and author of the viral After School newsletter. Just months after becoming the “it” product, hype for Stanley cups had died down. Most students who wanted one got one, and it lost the status once associated with it.
“They are absolutely on their way out,” Lewis told Business Insider. “This is peak Stanley.”
Gen Alpha’s hype life cycle is already coming for the Nike zipper-pull trend. Don’t want your pulls stolen? You’d best find another backpack brand to favor.
“No one in my school got Nike elite bags ever since the trend started,” one TikTok commenter said.
