First, Rock Climbing Becomes a Pandemic Hobby. Then It Becomes a Fashion Moment

In recent months, it seems like every guy in the hip New York City has donned a pair of Patagonia bags or baggy cargo pants with plastic buckles around the waist. Or, if you go twenty minutes out of town for a nature walk, you’ll see a herd of guys out there in comfortable yet functional hiking sandals, maybe paired with a funky bootleg t-shirt with a few facts about Walter Benjamin on him. If you’ve seen any of these things, don’t worry. You’re not crazy. Everyone is dressed like rock climbers now.

Many of them even climbed on their own. Rock climbing, like scratching socks and naming your sourdough starter, is one of the many hobbies people are enjoying during the pandemic. (Of course, it also has its pre-pandemic moments.) But climbing feels different from the activity. This is a solitary activity, but also fun to do with friends. There’s something calming and methodical about finding your way to the surface of some kind of Paleozoic chunk of Earth, or just a Nickelodeon-colored man-made wall.

There’s also, not surprisingly, a whole way to dress for it. Rock climbing is not just about climbingit’s also about what you wear to do it.

Designer Spencer Phipps is probably the perfect example of this new climber. Phipps, who lives in Paris, installed a climbing gym in his own home just before the pandemic. It ended up being a great move: he used it all the time in the darkest parts of the lockup, and still uses it quite often today. Phipps says he loves low-tech rock climbing. When she goes hiking, she tends to wear a lot of vintage military surplus clothing. But when I asked him who was the most stylish person he had ever seen climbing, he said that there was an octogenarian-aged man at the gym he went to in Paris who was the fittest he had ever seen. She will wear these leggings. But he’s like, so skinny and old that they’re like, baggy, skinny jeans or something. It was like, kind of skinny and moody, he said. And then he’s got this like a salmon colored alligator. And this pom pom beanie.

Erin, who works at VITAL, a gym in Williamsburg, says she can easily spot rock climbers in the world. I’ll pay attention, he said, People on the subway with Osprey bags. You can usually tell that they are a really serious climber or hiker. Erins’ own favorite hiking-related outfit are the Gramicci pants: I’ve worn them every day because I can wear them to do almost anything. They also look really cute like baggy chinos.