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Symbols
Malcolm Gladwell uses many concrete examples throughout his book, but arguably the most important example he uses is the Hush Puppy, a kind of shoe popular in the 1950s that briefly became “hip” again in the mid-1990s. For Gladwell, the Hush Puppy is an important symbol of how suddenly and unexpectedly a product, idea, or message can become popular in an open, contemporary society.
Hush Puppies Quotes in The Tipping Point
The The Tipping Point quotes below all refer to the symbol of Hush Puppies. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter Six
Quotes
At Lambesis, Gordon developed a network of young, savvy correspondents in New York and Los Angeles and Chicago and Dallas and Seattle and around the world in places like Tokyo and London. These were the kind of people who would have been wearing Hush Puppies in the East Village in the early 1990s. They all fit a particular personality type: they were Innovators.
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Hush Puppies Symbol Timeline in The Tipping Point
The timeline below shows where the symbol Hush Puppies appears in The Tipping Point. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Introduction
In the mid 1990s, Hush Puppies —an old-fashioned kind of shoe—became suddenly, unexpectedly popular. Fashion photographers in New York City were...
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...because small changes can have big effects—for example, the handful of Manhattan hipsters who wore Hush Puppies started a trend that eventually influenced millions of American consumers. Finally, the spread of ideas...
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Chapter Two: The Law of the Few
...all “mouths” are created equal. Gladwell guesses that one of the reasons that trends like Hush Puppies reach their Tipping Point is that they’re discovered by someone like Lois Weisberg or Roger...
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...they share information openly and honestly. Perhaps someone like Alpert was instrumental in starting the Hush Puppy trend; he found a good deal in shoes that weren’t yet trendy, and told his...
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Chapter Six: Case Study (Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation)
...adopt an idea early on, but without taking a substantial risk. The hipsters who wore Hush Puppies in the mid-90s would constitute the Early Adopters, while the fashion designers who then used...
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