A waterproof shell jacket built for an Alpine storm, worn to a café. Trail-running shoes designed for mountain paths, worn on a city pavement. A fleece, a nylon bucket hat, a pair of quick-dry trousers with too many pockets. Gorpcore is the fashion of dressing for an expedition you are not going on, and it has been one of the most influential menswear-and-beyond trends of the past decade.
What is gorpcore?
Gorpcore is a style built on technical outdoor gear worn as everyday streetwear. The pieces are functional (waterproof, breathable, insulated, grippy) and the brands are those of hikers and climbers: Arc’teryx, Salomon, The North Face, Patagonia, Hoka and others. The look is practical but deliberately styled, often mixing technical layers with tailoring or high fashion. The colours range from earthy greens and browns to bright, high-visibility accents.
Where it came from
The word was coined by writer Jason Chen in a May 2017 article for New York magazine’s The Cut, titled “First Came Normcore. Now Get Ready for Gorpcore.” “Gorp” is American slang for trail mix, sometimes said to stand for “good old raisins and peanuts”, the snack hikers carry. Chen noticed that musicians such as A$AP Rocky and Drake were wearing serious outdoor gear as street style, and he named it with a wink.
The trend grew steadily through the late 2010s, then exploded during the pandemic, when hiking and outdoor exercise became one of the few ways to see friends and the line between home clothes and outdoor clothes blurred. Fashion embraced it too: The North Face collaborated with Gucci and Supreme, Salomon’s XT-6 trainer became a cult item, and Arc’teryx shell jackets became status symbols in cities from London to Seoul to Shanghai, where the brand grew enormously. In South Korea, middle-aged men’s love of hiking gear was suddenly reframed as cool.
The codes
- Clothes: waterproof shell jackets, puffer and down jackets, fleece pullovers, convertible and cargo trousers, technical shorts, base layers.
- Shoes: trail runners (Salomon XT-6, Hoka), hiking boots, technical sandals such as Tevas, clogs with socks.
- Accessories: bucket hats, beanies, carabiners, sling and hip bags, small technical backpacks, water bottles.
- Colours: olive, khaki, stone and black, with flashes of orange, lime, purple and cobalt.
- Labels most associated with it: Arc’teryx, Salomon, The North Face, Patagonia, Snow Peak, Hoka, and/wander, and fashion collaborations from Gucci, Supreme, Kiko Kostadinov and others.
See the mood
IMAGES: PINTEREST. TAP ANY IMAGE TO SEE IT ON PINTEREST AND ITS ORIGINAL SOURCE.
The references
People: A$AP Rocky, Frank Ocean, Drake and Bella Hadid have all been photographed in outdoor gear; hiking clubs such as Hike Clerb have brought new communities onto the trails.
Fashion: Gucci x The North Face (2020–2021), Supreme’s long-running collaborations, Prada’s technical nylon, Salomon’s collaborations with fashion labels such as MM6 Maison Margiela and Sandy Liang, and the “tech” designers of Japan and Korea.
Why it caught on
Gorpcore offers clothes that work. In unpredictable weather and busy cities, a waterproof jacket and comfortable shoes are genuinely useful. It also signals an identity: someone who goes outdoors, values function over fuss and knows good engineering. And it is gender-neutral and comfortable, which made it a natural fit after the pandemic’s shift towards practical dressing. In Indian cities, where winters can be cold, smoggy and wet and many people trek in the Himalayas, the logic is easy to understand.
The debate
The obvious criticism is in the original joke: most people wearing gorpcore are not climbing anything. Experienced hikers have teased “posers” in expensive shells, and the trend has driven up prices for gear that used to be for specialists. Environmental critics have pointed out the irony of buying lots of new, synthetic outdoor clothing in the name of loving nature. On the other hand, technical gear is built to last for years, and some fans have genuinely discovered the outdoors through the trend.
Where it is now
Gorpcore has outlasted almost every other “-core”. By the mid-2020s outdoor brands had become permanent fixtures of street style, and the trend had grown more spiritual, with Pinterest describing a “mystical” outdoors mood in its 2026 forecast. It also sits beside “blokecore” and normcore as part of a long trend towards practical, uniform-like clothing.
Related aesthetics
Normcore · Blokecore · Eclectic Grandpa · Goblincore
Learn more: hear from more voices
A sharp look at the darker side of gorpcore, and a guide to the brands behind it.
Sources: Jason Chen, “First Came Normcore. Now Get Ready for Gorpcore”, The Cut (25 May 2017); Dazed and Wikipedia on gorpcore; Pinterest Predicts 2026. Videos are embedded from YouTube and remain the work of their creators.
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