Hipster Traps was an art project created by myself and Jeff Greenspan in 2011. In gentrifying neighborhoods exploited by hipsters, we tried to control the population with bear traps featuring popular identifying hipster items of the day.

In the Ted Talk below, Jeff explains it.

The first set of traps we began rolled out in New York City were strategically placed in New York City’s Williamsburg and the East Village. They held a can of PBR, a Holga camera, ironic sunglasses, American Spirits cigs, and a yellow fixie bike chain.
Someone posted a picture of our first one to Reddit and within hours, it had over 700,000 views.  
Pictures of the Hipster Traps went on to have millions of impressions through Facebook posts and Tweets over the next year. 

It quickly built up steam on social media and some online publications took notice. 

And even Hot Topic ripped us off!

To continue the buzz, we put out another set of traps, called the BRIDGE & TUNNEL TRAPS, in the Lower East Side and in Midtown Manhattan. They contained Drakkar Noir cologne, Sunless Bronzer, Spikey Hair Gel, Path train tickets to Jersey, a Long Island Rail Road schedule, and a gold chain.

The next traps were TEA PARTY TRAPS in Washington D.C.. They had a Tea Party Manifesto book, Gun Cleaner, The US Constitution, Don't Tread On Me stickers a NObama button and a No More Taxes pin.

A look into how the traps were 'made' by our production designer, Aaron Glazer.