Coolhunting

Taken from "Oltre MODA" June 2009

Future Concept Lab launched coolhunting in 1992 – the first research institute in the world – as an innovative alternative to existing research methods. Coolhunting is neither a job-title-coined in the mid nineties, nor a new professional figure. Coolhunting interprets the need to face change, in a spontaneous manner and without much theory. People who practise coolhunting, gather and report all those interesting (cool) expressions emerging in the urban and domestic reality of a specific city, giving photographic and written evidence, similarly to an ethnographic observation. Their wide observation includes information, on how people dress, their cultural or consumption preferences, new city venues etc., without however interpreting the impact of their findings on global and local level.
Nevertheless, the Institute has in the past years experimented a more systematic way of practising coolhunting, offering to the deployed young researchers not only training on alternative ethnographic methodologies but also a strong theoretical background.