About Lost X Youth

TL;DR If you wanna do something, just do it.

Why does Lost X Youth exist?

There are three main reasons Lost X Youth exists:

Lowering the barriers

The inclusive subculture – as our team understands Straight Edge to be – is today often exclusive to everyone who can’t afford it. With LY, we try to bring something to life, that lowers a barrier-to-enter to our scene. We hope that LY allows more people to partake again, less dependent on how deep their pockets are.
While we are aware that this is only a merch store, and the cloth we wear should not determine if and where we belong. We do hope to show how big the margins are that businesses in hardcore are riding on and that it is still possible to offer something at reasonable prices. And, we do hope that maybe, just maybe, the principles LY is run by, catch on again and in turn lead to:

Preserving a dying DIY and non-profit spirit

Might be the nostalgia speaking, but supposedly there were times when the “scene” used to be a place to exchange ideas and vent, rather than a place where professionals earned their livelihood. We learned how to set up shows, start bands, tour, record music and print zines and merch, because it always seemed possible for the layman without big pockets or connections. We learned it because you didn’t need a high-end production team to release a record that could impact others. You didn’t need a major booking agency to spread your message around the world. You could just do it all yourself. While this might still hold true for some sub-genres, the amount of “entrepreneurs” articulating mission statements, building brands and increasing their margins on everything related to *core music is just becoming ridiculous.

LY is our approach to thematise this topic and to test for ourselves, how much space is left for non-profit projects that just want their voices heard, and to attempt things just for the sake of attempting them. Which brings us to:

‘Cause we wanted the stuff we offer here

We didn’t like most of the shirts and stuff we found online. What we liked, we made. If you don’t like them, cool, just do your own. If you need help setting it up, contact us. Got no time to do it yourself? Have a look at this list of stores.