![]() ![]() Journalists quickly characterized vapers as a subculture (Couts, 2013 McGrady, 2019 Park, 2013 Sottille, 2014) a typical account described “a hardcore of early‐adopter metalheads with gauged ears and box mods” (Smith IV, 2015). Vaping began to emerge as a practice in countries of the global north after sales increased dramatically from around 2010 following the introduction of electronic cigarettes into European and North American markets in 2006 (Fagerstrom et al., 2015). I conclude that the exclusion of a feminized, classed “other” is a defining element of subcultural formation, itself an overwhelmingly male mechanism of group identity construction. Finally, the success of the price‐focused vaping industry has been largely overlooked, but suggests that for most consumers, electronic cigarettes are still a contrasting category to combusted tobacco and are purchased largely on price. This task was hampered by the toxic legacy of combusted tobacco and its increasing reversion to a generic category rather than a branded product. The mainstream industry included tobacco companies which promoted vaping as a complementary category to smoking, linking their own vaping products to historic meanings of the cigarette as a lifestyle product. Its attachment to complex systems and masculine spaces risked excluding customers without specialist knowledge or interest. I build on Thornton's analysis of club culture to characterize the subcultural vape industry as a community of taste built round a masculine aesthetic and a commitment to authenticity and DIY practice. ![]() Drawing on a 2‐year study, I argue that the UK vape industry is engaged in a classificatory struggle between a subcultural industry and its “other”, the mainstream industry.
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