Hot Topic | The History of Hot Topic

We seriously made history. Scroll thru our timeline now to see how we did it.

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Posts by Hot Topic

1993 // We shoot our first (and only) commercial.

BTW, some of the employees in it still work here!

1993 // First store in the mall to sell body jewelry.

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Barbells, hoops and plugs, oh my!

1994 // What’s this? What’s this? Nightmare Before Christmas merch is everywhere, including our stores.

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NBC fans couldn't (and still can't) get enough!

1995 // Tripp, Kikwear, and UFO pants are bigger than ever.

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Just how Big do you want your legged pants? We had options!

1996 // We get a full-on makeover. Because who needs a front door when you can have gates?!

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The birth of our gate stores.

1996 // Those gates? We bring ’em to the World Wide Web. HOTTOPIC.COM launches.

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Our website. **quivering with fear**

OCTOBER, 1996 // Hot Topic (HOTT) becomes a publicly-traded company on NASDAQ. It’s official. We sell out.

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1996 // Employees suggest pants with glow stick pockets. And we say: let there be light.

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Where did teens put their glow sticks before these pants were invented??

OCTOBER, 1997 // AH-MA-ZING band performances for HT employees, and HT employees only. Starting with The Aquabats.

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Aquabats!!!!!

OCTOBER, 1997 // Who keeps spreading these rumors? Bloodletting in the backroom, vampire managers, manadatory employee piercings…

and angry mobs waving bibles. (Actually, that last one really happened.)