Hipsters

While my disdain for hipsters is well known, (if you have a couple hours to kill check out Look At this Fucking Hipster and Hipster Puppies), I do have to admit they're ahead of the curve on a large number of trends.  While they generally focus on Americana, irony, moustaches and apathy, hipsters have helped shape everything from beer and food sales to sports and footwear.  Trends are tough to predict, but the underlying theme of "classic middle America" is certainly present in most of what hipsters seem to cling to.  For instance:

-Dodgeball and kickball are now played in cities nationwide, not just middle schools
-Cupcakes are a million dollar business (see the recent IPO of Crumbs bake shop- ticker: CRMB)
-A can of Pabst Blue Ribbon is sold in NYC bars for the price of a six pack in the midwest
-A grilled cheese shop recently opened on 53rd and 3rd (which is admittedly delicious)

The trend certainly isn't only recent however, as the Malcolm Gladwell book Tipping Point highlights.  Some "kids on the lower east side of Manhattan" (aka hipsters) started wearing the soon-to-be obsolete shoes known as Hush Puppies in 1994.  Within a year they were featured on the feet of fashion models and the company went from selling 30,000 pairs in '94 to selling almost 2 million pairs in '96 alone.

Bottom line is that it doesn't take long before the irony of doing something different takes it to the main stream.