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 from the 󈦺’s’ category

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…

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

1997 // WHO KILLED KENNY?! We didn’t, but we’re the first store to carry South Park merch in malls.

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Four boys. One effed up town.

MAY, 1998 // FREE Goth makeovers

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The day the mall was a sea of black lipsticked teens.

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