As someone who has spent an embarrassing amount of money on clothes over the years, and as a result delved fairly deeply into some weird online communities surrounding them, I would like to use this website to mount a spirited defence of a fashion style I have long been very into, but which has lately fallen on some hard times. It's known as techwear.
Thanks to dropshippers, their social media ads, algorithms and just the outright misappropriation of the label over the years, many of you who have heard the word "techwear" as a passer-by probably associate it with a type of clothing that can best be described as landing somewhere on the design spectrum between Mall Ninja and a Tetsuya Nomura Character. Something like this Reddit thread:
Think cargo pants with 17 pointless straps hanging off them, sci-fi face masks that look physically impossible to wear, jackets covered in big kanji characters. Google "techwear" right now and the image results will give you page after page of bad Cyberpunk 2077 cosplay, loads of kids dressing like they've been conscripted into a war against the machines.
But that's not techwear. Or at least it's not techwear as it was originally pioneered and intended. Techwear is, at its core, something much simpler. The most common definition--it doesn't have a wikipedia or dictionary entry!--tends to be something like this Aesthetics Wiki post, which says the trend "mostly grew out of a shared obsession with the craft and innovation of functional, durable, all-weather clothing".
Think clothes that look good, but are also packed with technology and innovative design expressed everywhere from materials to fabrics, which are often waterproof and/or windproof. Techwear normally also has design features like multiple pockets and cuts (like gusseted crotches) that allow for comfortable movement. In practical terms, techwear is supposed to be clothing that you can wear anywhere, in almost any conditions, from a rainy walk in the countryside to a train platform in the middle of winter to an office to a party.
Sounds great, right, or at least useful? That's how I got into it! Well, that's not strictly true: I first got into techwear when, having been a streetwear guy for most of my adult life, in 2014 I saw the announcement for a new line called Nikelab ACG, which blended Nikelab (Nike's premium fashion clothing) with ACG (the company's traditional label for rugged, outdoor gear). I was instantly in love with the whole thing. The futuristic look, the practicality, all of it.
I quickly learned why it was so good: it was a collaboration between Nike and Errolson Hugh, the co-founder of techwear pioneers Acronym, a label as famous for its cutting-edge fashion (and iconic pieces like the J1A jacket and P-10 pants) as its exorbitant prices, which routinely run over $1000 for a single item. This Nikelab ACG stuff promised to be (relatively) more affordable, and over the next decade--with Acronym and other pricier techwear stuff out of reach--I collected as many pieces from the collection as I could. And while the aesthetics may have got me in the door, the practicality of having jackets with such useful pockets and trousers that had the pragmatism of cargo pants without the stigma kept me around.
Acronym isn't alone in the techwear space in charging lofty prices; other notable labels like Enfin Leve, Veilance and Y3 are similarly priced, making them inaccessible to most people. That's why I went after the Nikelab ACG stuff so hard, and is also why I've spent much of the last decade lurking around online communities finding cheaper (and sometimes much cheaper) alternatives.
Of which there are loads. The scene might be somewhat famous for being expensive--all that tech and workmanship and, let's be real, exclusivity comes at a price--but you don't need to spend $1200 on a pair of cargo pants to get in on the action. There's plenty of technical crossover with other brands that will let you make use of loads of features and look good at a fraction of the price. Uniqlo has a ton of stuff that is surprisingly technical, for instance--the Blocktech Parka is almost a techwear cliche, as is anything with the company's AIRism tech, up to and including the essential oversized tee.
A particular lower-priced favourite of some of us at Aftermath is Indonesian label Orbitgear, who are making stuff by hand from their studio in Jakarta and offering loads of amazing gear at much more affordable prices. Both myself and Chris Person have Orbitgear bags, and I just bought a very nice pair of shorts for $100 where a similar pair made by Acronym (albeit with slightly nicer fabric, of course) would have run me well over $600.
Making techwear even more versatile (and sometimes more affordable) is the way you can break it down into subgenres, or examine associated trends that sit pretty close to it on the venn diagram of fashion. Gorpcore, a relatively current streetwear trend of dressing like you're about to go climb a mountain even though you're at the mall, cuts very close to techwear because it often shares many of the same priorities, like space-age fabrics and climate versatility. Flagship gorpcore brands like Nike ACG, Salomon and Arcteryx are popular in the techwear scene.
See also 'Grayman", a techwear subgenre that is particularly focused on visual simplicity and formality. Recognising that general techwear stuff like Acronym and Enfin Leve can sometimes go a little too hard on pockets and the tactical look, Grayman emphasises a cleaner look. You can find some examples here, and while labels like Veilance feature heavily, once again you can find a lot of much cheaper alternatives at Uniqlo (basically any office clothing with "stretch" in the name).
Even activewear can take part. Lululemon stock a ton of technical clothing, especially their menswear section, which features stuff like stretch pants for the office and business shirts that feel and move more like soccer jerseys. I've also become a big fan of Australian cycling apparel brand MAAP, not because I'm a serious cyclist, but because their off-bike stuff has a great technical slant, with lots of nice cuts, materials and practical benefits.
Techwear's appeal and versatility even goes beyond the real world. Errolson Hugh designed Adam Jensen's jacket in Deus Ex, for example, while also doing so much work on Kojima Productions' Death Stranding that he makes an appearance in the game (and is reprising all this for the upcoming sequel). Ukrainian techwear label Riot Division worked on jacket design for Ghostwire Tokyo, and if you're a fan of Mirror's Edge and its sequel they're leaning very hard on the style.
...when we did clothing for Deus Ex and Death Stranding, we actually ended up designing the clothes as if they were real. We used the exact same process as we would for something we would actually manufacture. It just translates super easily.
Errolson Hugh, Bodega
I love these clothes. I love the knowledge that I can put something on in the morning and know I'll be able to wear it wherever I go that day and whatever the weather. I love the fact that so many of the most famous brands and their pieces are almost timeless, meaning I can buy something in 2015 and it still looks incredible in 2025 (which is especially useful when you spend $400 on pants, you want to get some use out of them!).
I think it sucks that the term “techwear” has gotten so lost in the wash; not only does most of the stuff being labelled or known colloquially as "techwear" these days actually belong to a style known as "warcore", but because most of it is fast fashion junk that has no technical benefit whatsoever, as it's missing everything from waterproofing to breathable fabrics. The whole point of the word is that it's supposed to be technical!
Things have gotten so bad that I'm almost embarrassed to say I'm into techwear when I'm among people who don't know what it actually is. An example: we had a Kotaku meeting a few years back where I said I liked it out loud, and people laughed at me because they were picturing me, a man in my 40s, wearing a pair of pants with straps hanging between the crotch and waving a lightsaber around. To be fair that is very funny, but also wholly inaccurate, hence this spirited defence!
I'm not saying you need to dress like this, or even try it out. I just wanted to use my website to set a little record straight, say that it's nice to own nice clothes that do lots of things at once, and that I should be able to talk about that without people thinking I'm an extra in The World Ends With You.
Though if you do want to learn more about it, or even just see some cool examples of the style in action in the real world and not as a stereotype, Sam Sundberg has a great Instagram account, as does bluekros, and Antwon's YouTube channel is also invaluable.
