So, that’s why Gen Z are obsessed with accessories
How stumbling on an OG Sony product design archive of odd and amazing work hit me with a big Gen Z behavioural unlock.
Upon landing on ’s Twitter, I was hit with a few thoughts and feelings:
This is the best thing on the internet.
Product design has regressed like maaaad - as its goals have become more business-critical.
Sony’s archive is home to my favourite product designs of all time.
Then finally, the brain blast 💡
The lack of character in the design of consumer electronics now is being addressed by the youngest consumers through accessorising.
Point four is why you’re reading this. Scrolling through the incredible Obsolete Sony feed sparked an unlock on a Gen Z behavioural trend I’ve been observing first-hand but also second-hand across different brand briefs I’ve worked on recently.
For Gen Z, their devices are an extension of who they are. It’s also where they spend a lot of their time - Gen Z is said to spend 6 hours and 5 minutes on their phones daily. For a generation where self-expression is crucial to everything they do, every single product they own, especially the ones they rely on, becomes a canvas for accessorising.
Their iPhones, phone cases, earbuds, AirPods (of all sizes), grills, side bags, handbags, keychains. Everything can be accessorised, everything can be made hyper-personal for Gen Z, even things they don’t own - like the baskets of e-bikes, they use to zip around their cities. But why? Where does this desire to over-accessorise come from?
When you look at the sheer richness, ingenuity and character of the designs in the Obsolete Sony archive, compared to today’s design standards, why Gen Z chooses to accessorise, nearly to the point of re-designing the product entirely, makes sense. It’s because consumer tech is boring these days, right? Yes and no.
Gen Z are approaching their products with the same desire the likes of Sony once did (and, still do in the case of their wearable air conditioner). Sony’s design philosophy was to create innovative, useable products that could ignite the consumer’s imagination. Nowadays consumer tech companies prioritise uniformity in design, to produce them at scale with fewer components <> suppliers = minimal slippage. So, Gen Z uses accessories to expedite this uniformity, to create a sense of agency to express who they are through their most-used products.
Previous gens would’ve rejected devices/products that didn’t feel specifically tailored to them. And 15-20 years ago, brands would have to respond and give them what they wanted because, in that era, there were multiple competitors across all consumer tech segments. Brands worked for brand loyalty back then. This was not the monopolised market that Gen Z was born into. Back then, if the consumer didn’t like the product, Panasonic, JVC, and Hitachi could scoop them up.
Gen Z, the first digital native gen, whose earliest memories likely will involve an iPhone or iPad, seem to accept this design uniformity as just part of their lives. It's like getting a new 500GB MacBook but 30GB’s have immediately gone to system storage. The lack of true competition in consumer tech has led them to accessorise around the inevitability of relying on Apple products rather than outright rejecting them. Their choosing to augment the design and individualise products using accessories is them fighting against this conditioning.
But also, perhaps this behaviour signals something bigger for Gen Z: the idea of home. To Gen Z, self-expression is ownership of their most valued commodity: themselves. Anywhere they can express their personality can viably become a home. Including products.
Because their idea of home is ephemeral and transient. An e-bike basket can function like a wardrobe. For a generation who’s heard about how difficult home ownership will be, who may be tenants already or may expect to be long-term tenants later in life, accessorising might just be a small clue to a bigger thought: Gen Z’s desire to accessorise everything, especially their integral tech devices, reflects their want to find a place in the world. The ‘‘I AM HERE’’ sign. Accessorising is Gen Z’s graffiti over consumer culture.
If you view Apple as a giant landlord and each product as small houses, products used 1000’s of times a day, it’s clear how this idea can take shape. Gen Zs relationship with consumer tech signals their macro relationship with the world - because they’re experiencing the world so intimately through consumer tech in a way no previous generation ever has. Millennials (me) viewed consumer tech as an expression of imagination and craft. Gen Z views consumer tech as an expression of reality.
Design trends are, mostly, generational. And the era of high (external) craft, maximalist, artful consumer tech, except for Nothing (and TE) - whose design language takes big cues from Sony’s archive, is mostly over. Despite Nothing’s impressive results, their core customer is millennials and Gen Xers who are still sensitive to unique product design. Which is interesting, considering how competitively priced their products are. So, does Gen Z even want unique design? Or an Apple alternative?
Since the success of the iPhone, consumer tech companies have applied the famous Henrik Fisker line ‘‘If design isn’t profitable, then it’s art’’ in their approach towards product and industrial design. For a long time, it was a beautiful but optional showcase expressing a company’s creative capacity. A bit like how Russia utilises ballet? Art that rounds the edges. Even Sony needed simple (but still revolutionary) wins with VHS players, TVs and portable radios before the Walkman came and transformed their business. Then, the Aibos and crazy patents could follow. Between the journey from Walkman 🚶🏾➡️ iPod 🚶🏾➡️ iPhone, product design has gone from a cool art-science project into the main profit driver. Product design sucks for Gen Z because consumer tech businesses (Apple) cracked the design formula to profitability with it to the point where innovation is irrelevant.
But despite this redefined context, Gen Z is still finding ways to put the personality missing in consumer tech back in. And in that process, are telling us a lot about themselves.
Now, whenever I see Gen Z with highly accessorised phones, headphones, or anything, I think: this is how they’re locating a home in the world. Home is so crucial to them, that they’ll create it in any space they can. Because home is such a modular concept for this generation - is home physical, or digital? Or both? So I think how they approach consumer tech is a microcosm for how brands can drive impact in their strategies towards Gen Z:
Meeting them halfway.
Build scaffolding/frameworks around how they interact with the said brand/product.
Then, trust them to build the structures within it.
Repeat.
So next time you see a Gen Z’s sporting elaborately embellished/hyper-personalised AirPods Max’s… Turn it on its head. See their search for a place in the world. A search for home. This could open up some interesting storytelling/strategic directions for any clever brands out there.
Thank you so much for featuring ObsoleteSony in your article! I created this project because, frankly, I was feeling pretty uninspired by the current tech scene. Surrounding myself with older, unique tech has brought a sense of satisfaction and excitement that modern designs often lack. It’s amazing to see that this perspective resonates with others, and your article really captures that essence. Thanks again for your kind words and for shining a light on the value of classic tech!