Is La Brea Avenue the capital of street wear? It looks that way on Saturday afternoons, when a horde descends on the L.A. street just south of Beverly Boulevard, spilling from the stores to the sidewalks as they line up to buy hoodies, T-shirts, baggy pants and sneakers popular among urban youths.

“It’s crazy – nonstop people coming in the door,” said Jeremy Shapiro, co-owner of & Still Clothing, which specializes in never-purchased sports hats and jackets from the 1980s.

Several retailers in the street wear niche stand cheek to jowl on a short stretch of La Brea. They include Stussy, a New York-based chain with nine stores that sell some items in Macy’s; Undefeated, a sneaker shop; Union Los Angeles, which features upscale designs inspired by so-called street fashion; Volcom Stone, a skater-skewing store; and & Still Clothing.

One afternoon last week, Corey Fowler, 19, drove from his home in Inglewood with three friends to the stores to hunt through the merchandise. Some of the brands in Union, for example, are not available anywhere else in North America.

“What did I buy here? Everything I got on,” Fowler explained.

He had just purchased a pair of jeans, a baseball cap he was wearing backwards and a T-shirt. He also had bought a pair of Nikes, but was carrying them in a bag. That meant he had just dropped a significant amount of cash.

The jump up from street wear’s discount origins to high fashion comes with a price. At Union, shirts can cost as much as $420 and jeans $600. A few steps away at Undefeated, a pair of sneakers can fetch $300.

Chris Gibbs, owner of Union, said several of the stores have been on La Brea since the 1990s, but recently have benefited from the mainstreaming of street wear as the original customers age into their 30s and 40s. People come to the stores from as far away as San Diego and San Francisco. Among the shoppers is a sizable contingent of Japanese tourists.

Although the stores compete against each other, they also enjoy a combined attraction that stimulates foot traffic and sales.

“I’ve never had to put a dime into advertising, and that’s strongly attributed to the three stores that were already here,” said Shapiro, who opened & Still Clothing in 2008. “Fitting in with them worked out well.”