The urban wear market is picking up steam, as its appeal spreads beyond the confines of the urban market.

Spreading due to the popularity of rap music, rap inspired video games, and films featuring rap artists, the urban wear market has been steadily rising.

Many retailers have been trying to increase their sales by tapping into this lucrative market.

While the urban wear market does present many compelling opportunities to make money, retailers need to be aware of the fickle nature of the market.

For instance, brands gain and lose their popularity in relation to the level of popularity of the rap performers that market the brand.

In other words, for a retailer to carefully decide which urban brands to stock, he needs to keep track of the popularity of the musicians who wear and promote the clothing.

By reading hip hop magazines, and following media reports, retailers can gage which urban brands are experiencing demand, and which are experiencing a diminishing level of popularity.

For example, when 50 Cent, a well known rap artist, appeared in a major film his clothing line experienced a strong level of demand.

On the flip side, FUBU saw a strong drop in demand for its clothing line due to the lack of a popular rap musician promoting its clothing line.

Other brands such as Ecko have been more aggressive in developing lines inspired by well known rappers, as they did with 50 Cent.

But all of this can be meaningless to a retailer unless he knows which rappers are considered to be in the spotlight.

The best way to conduct this research is through an ongoing online search using news sources and rap related forums.