Editorial: Sydney’s eshay wave has crept into WA like an irritating virus

For a time, it appeared WA had escaped the eshay wave.

But like COVID or any other irritating virus, the youth subculture which is believed to have originated in Sydney’s western suburbs has crept its way across the border.

Even if you’ve never heard of an eshay, you’ve probably seen one.

Having co-opted the Nautica polo shirt, joggers and bum bag uniform of the daggy dad taking the kids out for a trip to Adventure World, eshays are an increasingly common sight around Perth.

But instead waiting at the bottom of the Kraken for the kids to appear, you’ll find eshays loitering at train stations looking for commuters to harass for cigarettes.

Beyond their baffling sartorial choices, eshays are known for their love of mullets, hip-hop and pig Latin which they apparently use to hide conversations about nefarious goings-on from others. The fact pig Latin has been in use since Adam was an ad-lay and is easily understood by just about anyone who also comprehend English shows how dimwitted the trend is.

But although they might not be criminal masterminds, there is undoubtedly an underlying menace to the eshay subculture.

Most wannabe eshays are guilty only of crimes against fashion. But some take it a step further.

In 2020, 20-year-old Matthew Henson was bashed senseless by a group of teenagers at Stirling train station. Their target was his expensive Nikes, highly prized in the eshay world.

That was just one of a spate of attacks on boys and young men in which their shoes were stolen.

It’s thuggery like that which has prompted Hillary’s nightspot Bar1 to introduce a ban on Lava Red Nike TNs, as well as lookalikes by ASIC and New Balance in an attempt to keep eshays out.

It’s a move the Equal Opportunity Commission says could amount to discrimination if not uniformly applied across the sexes.

Licensee Malcolm Pages said the look was associated with “a certain element of person” likely to cause trouble.

But banning the boot might have the opposite of the intended effect.

Edith Cowan University lecturer in new media and social influence Dr Laura Glitsos said the ban could lend the look even more cultural cachet among that “certain element” Bar1 was trying to keep out.

“Every decade there is usually a moral panic about a particular group of youth — usually from a lower socio-economic space — teens and young men in their 20s posing this threat to the ‘moral order’,” she said.

“And then something needs to be done.”

Just as the goths of the Eighties spent more time sombrely listening to Joy Division and discussing tactics to keep their eyeliner from running in the Perth heat than they did carrying out ritual sacrifices to appease Satan, not everyone wearing red joggers is going to roll you for a cigarette.

Those attracted to the criminal side of eshay culture would likely do so no matter what shoes were in fashion. All the same, let’s hope this is one trend which dies out quickly.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor-in-Chief Anthony De Ceglie