From Spider-man neck gaiters to NFL cloth masks, nearly everyone can get their hands on a mask that represents their passions.
“You have to represent your favorite sports team,” Josh Hisaw, a junior at Liberty, referencing his Houston Texans mask.
Mask laws around the world and on Liberty University’s campus offer a new way for students to express themselves through what they wear.
Last semester, The Champion released a feature article on sneakers and how students were able to show their style through their shoes. This semester, students can showcase their personal style through masks.
Masks come in all colors, designs and patterns.
As mask mandates were introduced, standard face-coverings rapidly sold out in many areas—but unlike shoes, ordinary people could design and create their own. The mask shortage allowed creativity to flourish.
People also began designing masks that are both fashionable and effective.
Each mask is an opportunity to tell a story or represent a personality, which is why many people have multiple masks to wear, to match with a style or outfit.
Another student, Lucy Tignor, spoke about how her mask has attracted attention.
“I got my mask on the internet and a few different people have told me it looks cool,” Tignor said. “It looks like Bane from Batman.”
Hisaw expressed that he usually prefers neck gaiters.
“I just wear neck gaiters for masks mainly because they’re easily to pull up and down,” Hisaw said. “I always have it on and I just wear it around my neck.”
Neck gaiters primarily are used for blocking sunburn or as a bandana, but recently have grown to prominence as an adequate face covering.
Unlike shoes, most masks are relatively inexpensive, averaging $5 for reusable masks and only a couple of dollars for disposable ones. Sneakers are usually seen as a sub-culture, but mask culture reaches almost every human right now.
The longevity of mask culture is questionable, however – while sneaker culture has grown exponentially over the last few years, masks may not be around for the long run.
It remains to be seen if masks will be a part of society in the future.
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