Ha!
OK - it can be complicated as there are many parts to it, but here's the basic idea... we make meaning of the world via symbols (in this case physical things) and the values we ascribe to them. We also do this within smaller groups - called a 'public.' For example, the hunting public.
Physical things can act as symbols within the public, and we can both infer from others and project to others their values ascribed to them.
So, for the PBR example above, for whatever reason, PBR as a symbol has been assigned a certain value within the hispter culture. People who want to be in the hipster culture (pr public) choose the PBR symbol and with it, incorporate into their identity, the pre-assigned value ascribed to it. Basically, we walk around the world seeing certain values in symbols and incorporate them into our lives in order to make meaning within the public we want to be a part of.
At a BHA rally (or Meateater live show) guess what you will see??? "Public Land Owner" T-shirts, YETI hats, First Lite shirts, Patagonia Jackets, mustaches, flat-brim hats, people walking around asking Steve to sign their copy of Sand County Almanac. You get the point. On the surface, each of those things also has a practical use besides it's symbolic value, but in the public of a BHA rally or Meateater show - there is the added value of signaling that you, too, are a part of the tribe - your wearing that gear is an indication that you have been (or WANT to be) socialized into the group.
At some point, things can become almost fetishistic... killing a big deer on public land, for example, has a higher 'value' to some than on private land. Therefore when someone wants to signal to others in the tribe that they have something of great (symbolic) value, they not only show you a pic of the deer, but they remind you it was a 'public land" deer. The same for rifle vs. bow, compound bow vs. recurve. Same in fly fishing. Remember the beginning of a River Runs Throuhgt It? John wasn't just a fly fisherman, he was a DRY FLY fisherman...
I think you can see where this goes.
It's part of social science, so it's all debatable, but I think there is some merit to it.
For example, why else, but for the symbolic value they hold to other like-minded people, would someone spend $2000 on shiny 24" rims on a beat up piece of shit Oldsmobile '88?
Booker T Washington described symbolic interactionism in his book Up From Slavery but it wasn't called that then - he was very frustrated by it.
This is a hell of a digression...anyway, we all do this to an extent, it's just that some of it is more obvious than others. And yeah, I'm picking on BHA and Meateater, but it's all in good fun,...