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At the end of May, videos began to circulate the internet of teenagers running through the streets of Vienna, jostling with each other to get to a warehouse space where they frantically grabbed items hanging on clothing racks. While reminiscent of the frenzy created by British label Corteiz around its product drops in London, the brand behind this was Rare Humans: Vienna’s new viral streetwear label that’s capturing young consumers in mainland Europe.
Just over two years after its launch in January 2021, Rare Humans is a seven-figure business, with sales up 98 per cent from January to June 2023, compared with the same period in 2022 (founders Julian Fesenmeier and Tobias Plankensteiner decline to share exact revenues). Known for its slogan T-shirts, baggy denim and printed jackets, the brand is designed by and for young people — Fesenmeier and Plankensteiner are both aged 22. Collections are given titles like ‘Young and Wild’ and T-shirts include slogans such as “fuck fashion” or “my mom says I’m special so fuck you”.
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While major streetwear names including Supreme are suffering as the streetwear and sneaker markets slow down, a number of small players from Corteiz to Unknown London are building niche but growing businesses, with hyper-engaged communities online and sold-out drops. Rare Humans does an online drop every two or three months, shooting content two or three weeks before the release to drum up excitement across Instagram and TikTok. It opens its online shop on a Sunday and keeps it open until everything is sold, which is typically a matter of days, Fesenmeier says.
The May event, which was covered by titles like Hypebeast and Culted, cemented its status. Now, after solving manufacturing setbacks, Rare Humans is keen to establish itself as more than a grassroots streetwear label — setting its sights on the competitive luxury market.
A rollercoaster journey
Fesenmeier and Plankensteiner grew up in the small Austrian town of Schwarzach, which has a population of around 4,000. They met at school and bonded over feeling out of place in such a small town, where clothing was for function, not style. Aged 16, they took some business courses and taught themselves how to sketch designs. When they graduated from school, while their friends went to Vienna to university, they stayed back and launched Rare Humans.
“It was a journey packed with challenges,” says Fesenmeier. “We had no fancy office or warehouse, just a repurposed old storage hall, two laptops and a dream.”
The brand’s first release in May 2021 “wasn’t an overnight success” and it took weeks to recover their investment. After struggling with low-quality manufacturing in early drops, the founders switched to Portuguese suppliers, improving the craftsmanship tenfold and future-proofing the business. They now work with five factories across Portugal.
In 2022, the brand also relocated its offices to Vienna and hired an external fulfilment partner in order to solve delivery delays reaching its main markets of Germany, Austria, France and Italy. “This greatly improved our shipping rates and delivery times and allowed us to focus on the creative aspects of the brand,” Fesenmeier says.
Marketing manoeuvres
The May event accompanied Rare Humans’s ‘Young and Wild’ collection. Two weeks after the initial online drop sold out, the brand announced that it would release an additional limited run — this time free of charge, and available in-person at a mystery location in Vienna. It confirmed the location at 1pm on the day and, within minutes, there were hundreds of teenagers running around the city trying to find the warehouse.
There were 200 items on offer, and around 1,500 fans showed up. “We had no idea so many people would come,” Fesenmeier says. “We wanted to do things differently, so we made it free. So many other brands do normal [physical] drops where you have to buy a product. We wanted to go the opposite way and do something different for our customers and our community.” The event earned Rare Humans a lot of attention, Fesenmeier adds, leading to more eyes on future drops. A handful of pieces, mainly the logo jeans, showed up on resale sites like Grailed and Vinted, selling for their retail price (€130). But, for the most part, it seems customers held onto their finds.
Rare Humans currently has 85,000 Instagram followers, which it has built up by investing in creative shoots in destinations ranging from Austria to Los Angeles, rather than a studio. “Back when we started, we drove to a forest in Austria. It was -5°C in the snow and the shoot really took a lot of effort. But that’s where everything kind of took off,” recalls Fesenmeier.
One post features a Rare Humans jacket on fire laid flat on concrete and captioned “jacket so hot you gotta be careful”. “We really provide our community with the craziest links, the craziest photos, the craziest products,” Fesenmeier says. “That’s what we want to deliver.” Its latest shoot took place in LA at golden hour in front of the Hollywood sign, to promote new drop ‘California Breeze’.
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TikTok is another growth driver. The brand creates lo-fi videos of young people in its community swapping out their old clothes for Rare Humans pieces. “POV black pants are good but baggy denim jeans hit different”, one video is captioned. Another features a teenager decked out in Rare Humans being followed through Vienna by a gaggle of fans, to tease a drop. The founders say they respond to hundreds of messages and frequently host challenges for their community, to stay connected.
Gen Z media platform Culted was one of the first to discover Rare Humans, and shared videos of the May event on its TikTok and website. “There is an appetite for labels like Rare Humans because it’s less about product and more about community,” says Culted founder Pavel Dler. “It’s providing young consumers with a sense of belonging. It’s similar to the old Supreme days, but more localised. And, I think these young labels are able to achieve that by looking young — not at all corporate, more raw and real.”
Luxury ambitions
For now, Rare Humans is at the lower end of the premium price bracket, ranging from €64 for a T-shirt to €120 for denim cargo pants. However, Fesenmeier wants to take aim at the luxury market — going in a different direction to the likes of Corteiz, to which Rare Humans is often compared. “They’re focused a lot on streetwear, and while that’s what we’re doing now, we are looking ahead to create more luxury products,” says Fesenmeier.
This will entail moving away from such a heavy reliance on jersey and denim, and incorporating new fabrics and silhouettes at a higher price point, the details of which are still being worked out. “The Autumn/Winter 2025 season will be our first ever high-fashion collection with focus on more unique products,” he says.
Working in the luxury wholesale space brings its own challenges, requiring the brand to find new suppliers, which has been a challenge in the past. Plus, Rare Humans will have to accept lower profit margins on wholesale orders, while grappling with the often strict payment terms and cash flow issues emerging luxury designers regularly face.
Still, becoming a luxury brand has always been the ambition for Rare Humans’s founders, and building an engaged community in the streetwear space can be an excellent springboard for luxury success. Brands such as Rhude and Fear of God began as direct-to-consumer streetwear labels, focusing on T-shirts and hoodies before entering the luxury sphere with fashion shows and higher-end collections of tailoring. To succeed — and avoid alienating their existing communities — these labels have continued producing streetwear, sold via the drop model, in addition to creating luxury collections to be sold wholesale.
Rare Humans, which is currently only sold DTC, held a showroom in Milan during SS24 men’s fashion week in June, to introduce the brand to luxury buyers for the first time. The founders are in discussions with two potential Italian stockists for AW25.
Alongside producing higher-end collections, the brand intends to continue creating experiences. “We are already planning a new event, which is kind of similar to the last one but not the same. I cannot leak any details right now, but it will be amazing,” teases Fesenmeier.
His vision for Rare Humans is ambitious. “We want to continue pushing the boundaries, creating unique products, and hosting one-of-a-kind events,” Fesenmeier says. “We see ourselves participating in future fashion weeks and within the next 10 years opening physical stores in fashion hubs like Milan, Paris, New York, London and LA. The goal is not just to create a brand that’s hyped for a few years, but to build a legacy that lives beyond us.”
Key takeaway: Rare Humans has grown its buzzy streetwear label with creative social media campaigns, a regular drop cadence and viral in-person events. Now, after refining its production and delivery processes, the brand is taking aim at luxury fashion — following in the footsteps of the likes of Rhude and Fear of God.
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