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Malcolm Gladwell uses many concrete examples throughout his book, but arguably the most important example he uses is the Hush Puppy, a kind of shoe popular in the 1950s that briefly became “hip” again in the mid-1990s. For Gladwell, the Hush Puppy is an important symbol of how suddenly and unexpectedly a product, idea, or message can become popular in an open, contemporary society.
Hush Puppies Quotes in The Tipping Point
The The Tipping Point quotes below all refer to the symbol of Hush Puppies. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter Six Quotes
At Lambesis, Gordon developed a network of young, savvy correspondents in New York and Los Angeles and Chicago and Dallas and Seattle and around the world in places like Tokyo and London. These were the kind of people who would have been wearing Hush Puppies in the East Village in the early 1990s. They all fit a particular personality type: they were Innovators.
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In this chapter, we see how an advertising agency called Lambesis was able to boost sales for the shoe company Airwalk by using an elaborate network of “Innovators”—young, hip people who were paid to tell Lambesis about hot new trends. Lambesis used its young correspondents’ advice to make a series of commercials that repackaged various trends into an entertaining form. For example, when the music group The Beastie Boys brought their fans’ attention to the “Free Tibet” movement, Lambesis made a series of commercials featuring a monk who looked like the Dalai Lama. Hip, young people saw the commercial, and—since Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labo
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Hush Puppies Symbol Timeline in The Tipping Point
The timeline below shows where the symbol Hush Puppies appears in The Tipping Point. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Introduction
In the mid 1990s, Hush Puppies —an old-fashioned kind of shoe—became suddenly, unexpectedly popular. Fashion photographers in New York City were...
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...because small changes can have big effects—for example, the handful of Manhattan hipsters who wore Hush Puppies started a trend that eventually influenced millions of American consumers. Finally, the spread of ideas...
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Chapter Two: The Law of the Few
...all “mouths” are created equal. Gladwell guesses that one of the reasons that trends like Hush Puppies reach their Tipping Point is that they’re discovered by someone like Lois Weisberg or Roger...
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...they share information openly and honestly. Perhaps someone like Alpert was instrumental in starting the Hush Puppy trend; he found a good deal in shoes that weren’t yet trendy, and told his...
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Chapter Six: Case Study (Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation)
...adopt an idea early on, but without taking a substantial risk. The hipsters who wore Hush Puppies in the mid-90s would constitute the Early Adopters, while the fashion designers who then used...
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