Recently, an SK hynix uniform that drew attention among office workers as the "best blind date look" and the "luxury store free-pass look" has appeared on the secondhand transaction market.

An internet user posts a rear-view photo of a man wearing a jumper with the SK hynix logo and writes, "Korea's best blind-date look right now," sending it viral as an online meme./Courtesy of Online Community Capture

According to secondhand transaction platform Karrot on the 6th, on the 5th a user posted that they were selling an SK hynix jumper. The seller introduced the jumper as the "best blind date look" and asked for 40,000 won.

The jumper in the post is a midseason padded style with the SK hynix logo embroidered on the right chest. Although it is not confirmed whether it is an actual company-issued product, the post quickly spread across online communities and social media (SNS) right after it was uploaded, drawing interest.

This phenomenon is seen as tied to the recent trend of SK hynix being consumed as a symbol of a "high-income workplace." The company operates a profit-sharing (PS) program funded by 10% of operating profit, and interest in the size of employee bonuses is growing along with performance expectations.

In fact, SK hynix's results are soaring on the back of the recent semiconductor supercycle (boom period). SK hynix's operating profit in the first quarter of this year was about 38 trillion won, marking a record high for four consecutive quarters. The operating margin was 71.5% in the first quarter of this year, surpassing Taiwan's TSMC (58.1%).

A secondhand listing for an SK hynix jumper on the used-goods platform karrot./Courtesy of Karrot Capture

In the securities industry, the view is that SK hynix, buoyed by the semiconductor supercycle, will post 250 trillion won in annual operating profit this year. If 250 trillion won in operating profit materializes, the PS fund to be paid early next year will reach 25 trillion won. A simple calculation dividing this by the total number of employees (about 35,000) yields an average bonus of about 700 million won per employee.

This social mood is also evident on television. Recently on SNL Korea season 8, a man in shabby clothes walked into a luxury store and the clerk reacted coolly, but when the man took off his coat to reveal a vest with the SK hynix logo, the clerk's attitude flipped. The clerk immediately said, "Hynix deity?" and treated him with utmost courtesy, and the scene became a major topic online.

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