Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Spawns Return of Friendship Bracelets

Taylor Swift has once again breathed life into a dying trend; her fans lovingly called swifties have rekindled the 2000s friendship bracelet trend, pulling the trend back into the limelight from the obscurity of a bygone era.

Eras Tour and Friendship Bracelet

The Eras tour has rekindled the friendship bracelet craze as her fans have decided to swap and give out bracelets or bands to celebrate her newest tour. The Swifties have made their friendship bracelets or brought them from the stores to swap during the live shows.

Friendship bracelets are bracelets made using beads or alternate materials to give to a close friend as a token of appreciation. Their origins can be traced back to indigenous communities in South Africa and Asia. 

Friendship bands are store-brought with custom words and lines; they are very few among the fans as they usually prefer bracelets over bands.

They came into prominence in the 1970s with the hippie craze, which in turn fueled schoolchildren to use them in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

The friendship bracelets made for the Era’s tour usually consist of beads with letters or numbers on them, some catchphrases, lyrics to Taylor’s song, and even some inside jokes among the fanbase.

There has been an increase in sales of bracelet-making kits and raw materials for making the bracelets. Furthermore, more and more tutorials for making bracelets are uploaded, raking in millions of views. 

Social media has taken this new trend with open hands, as there are thousands of posts of Swifties making bracelets and new groups to discuss creating and exchanging ideas. 

There is no specific reason for the bracelet trend to begin in the first place, but most fans believe that its origin is connected to the lyrics from the song “You’re on your own, kid” from her album Midnights. 

The trend gained traction after the release of Midnights in 2022, which gave credibility to the theory. Era’s tour was announced just weeks after the release, popularizing the bracelet notion. 

Swifties Economy

The return of the trend has increased the sales of custom-made bracelets and raw materials by a few folds. Most outlets in this niche have expressed a spike in sales.

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Many retail shops have seen about nine times the usual sales volume, while Etsy and other online retailers have seen about 150 times increase in their total sales. This increase in sales volume has created a shortage, prompting many swifties to sell their homemade wares for profit. 

Nostalgia-Driven Trend

The trend is a huge eye-opener for new fans to experience the social aspect of Taylor Swift’s tours. Most of the fans from the old generation have taken this as a chance to reminisce about their younger days and to teach the newer generations to make these bracelets. 

This creates a harmonious atmosphere and forms a social bond among fans. This is a great chance to foster a community with similar interests to begin a new friendship beyond online platforms in real life. 

Most of the channels teaching the art of bracelet making are managed by older generations, acting as a light to younger generations.

The Ultimate Bracelet

The ultimate aim of any challenges and trends is to become so widespread that even celebrities and media personalities start to emulate them. 

Taylor Swift, with her swaggering charm, had made the majority of the celebrities into her Swifties. She also posted a picture of her wearing about 400 friendship bands and captioned it with a heartfelt thanks to her fans and their friendship towards her. 

Even her new relationship with Travis Kelce started with a bracelet, as he brought a bracelet with his numbers on it to gift her at her concert. Although he was unsuccessful in giving it to her. Eventually, they got together and remains in love