The Cool Hunters.

• Position: The clothing industry, and market-research companies, spend a lot of time and money in investigating fashion trends - Brief Article

Do you know how companies like Nike and J. Crew figure out fashion's next big thing? By watching you very, very carefully.

Do you take shopping seriously? Love to spend hours at the mall with your friends, cruising the stores, checking out what other kids are wearing?

Businesses such as Nike, J. Crew, Wet Seal-Contempo, and Delia's hire scouts--or spies--to watch you, talk to you, and pay careful attention to what you wear and what you don't wear. Their mission: to find out what's hot and what's not.

Reebok, for example, sends so-called cool hunters into the field every few months with samples of new shoes to find out which ones kids like best. They stake out malls and city streets, and talk to kids about the features they like most.

CRYSTAL-BALL GAZING

There are also market-research companies that try to supply a crystal ball. They charge as much as $20,000 a year for reports that claim to predict what teens are going to buy six months or a year from now whether, for example, baggy pants will still be popular next fall.

They base their predictions on interviews with the coolest kids they can find in cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Researchers ask hundreds of kids to fill out questionnaires about not only clothing and accessories, but also about what they like to eat and...