"The Birth of the Loudest Store in the Mall"

"It all started in 1988. A ton of teen retail accessory stores littered the malls, but there weren't any cool, music-inspired accessory destinations for both guys and girls. Enter Hot Topic.

As 1990 rolled around, adding apparel seemed like a no-brainer. What better way than to bring in the ultimate music fan essential—band T-shirts. Customers flipped when they walked into Hot Topic stores and saw Bauhaus, The Cure, TSOL, and Depeche Mode rock tees at their fingertips. Within a year, we had about 50 different band titles, along with rock-inspired clothing lines like Lip Service and Serious. Today, Hot Topic has a growing line of apparel and accessories that includes music tees, band merch, shorts, swimwear, capris, pants, shoes, body jewelry, jeans and more."