The Untouchables

Japanese automotive accessories are sometimes the rarest and most exclusive aspects of owning a Japanese car. From the bosozoku revolving purple light to “Night Eyes”. I find it amazing that these products have exclusivity and a “hype” appeal in this industry.

Nightrunner International is a perfect example of hype wear and exclusivity in automotive culture. High quality high price items with limited availability. Trying to find these products (nightrunner and others) are sometimes impossible or very hard to acquire. 

These brands create exclusivity and demand for their products which make people feel the need to get them. Rare Japanese parts such as Ganadors, Garage Defend carbon fibre and authentic vintage parts are often worshipped and addictive to see and collect. Seeing authentic wheels and accessories on cars is seen as prestigious and unique. 

Customers of these exclusive products pay for brand name and reputation online and in person. This can be so closely compared to hype wear, a H&M jumper ($30) compared to an Off-White jumper ($600). Some automotive culture brands have managed to create unique products with limited availability that people will go the extra mile to be seen with. 

This is not always relative to products. Honja 🗿 has formed a group of likeminded enthusiasts that are genuine friends but has also created extreme amounts of exclusivity within the Honja group. Some diehard fans are willing to go to extreme lengths to represent Honja on their rear windscreen. Honja has created an empire that only he controls the population, a true case of exclusivity in the automotive culture scene.

On a different scale, Fortune Gang is a Sydney group of close friends that socialise at meets, together and are genuine friends outside of the car community. Fortune Gang is on its way to creating exclusivity within the group and expanding their group into a popular segment of automotive culture in Australia. 

Some of the community love being involved in the culture as well as the cars and some just prefer to enjoy their cars independently as a form of escape from social aspects and behaviour. 

Creating exclusivity in the automotive industry is an extremely challenging thing to achieve in regards to products, brands and groups. It is weird to think about how the automotive industry echos these trends that are also in other industries (hype, cult followings, exclusivity, limited products, brand reputation). It also makes me very excited to see what the future of automotive culture will become.

Photo by Honja 💕