The snug-fitting knit beanies made by the Canadian outdoor brand Arc’teryx have unexpectedly attracted a fan base well beyond its intended audience.
Their rise began in 2019 when the musician Frank Ocean wore one to attend a Louis Vuitton men’s wear runway show, pairing it with an orange quilted ski jacket by the Swiss label Mammut and faded bluejeans. “Looking back, this outfit felt like the start of a monumental shift,” GQ magazine wrote when looking back at the combination three years later, suggesting it had been a watershed moment in which purpose-driven technical brands became fodder for luxury fashion enthusiasts.
Just last week the beanie had another high-profile sighting: Timothée Chalamet paired one with a pink puffer jacket from Telfar, True Religion jeans capped with a skinny knit scarf and a quilted metallic cross-body bag from Chanel.
In between, the beanies — or toques, in Canadian parlance — surged in popularity, especially among a subset of young, urban consumers. The type who “wears a skull cap with the logo, is having a matcha, who loves talking about Japan,” said Alex Hartman, creator of the popular Instagram account Nolita Dirtbag, which skewers the niche habits of downtown New Yorkers. He noticed the beanie gaining traction in pockets of downtown like NoLIta, the Lower East Side and Dimes Square.
Today it is not uncommon to see the Arc’teryx logo cocooning frontal lobes in neighborhoods around the world, from Paris to Tokyo, often paired with thrifted double-knee pants from Carhartt, Oakley sunglasses and selections from other technical outdoor brands like Salomon and North Face. But more often the toques seem to exist on social media, in fit pic posts on Instagram or shopping roundups of best new winter hats on TikTok.
But they are a signifier of a much greater movement in which the divide between high-end fashion labels and outdoor lifestyle brands has become blurry, if not downright nonexistent. And brands with technical design prowess — Patagonia, the North Face, Salomon or Hoka — have been absorbed by the fashion industry. In a world where some luxury sales have stalled, companies that emphasize functionality and utility — plus a little aesthetic finesse — have captured the minds of consumers. In its most recent quarterly report, which was released last November, Amer Sports, which owns Arc’teryx as well as Salomon, reported 17 percent year over year growth and revenue of $1.35 billion. Those gains were led by Arc’teryx’s strong performance.
The beanies are popular enough that they have inspired their own set of memes, often playing on the fact that they have become sartorial shorthand for an archetypal city dweller. And despite being designed for a specific outdoor, cold-weather use, they have been adopted by those using them solely for fashion purposes.
“It’s interesting when a fashion trend stems from, not to stereotype it, but at its core it’s for a guy who’s middle-aged or older and who doesn’t really care about fashion,” said Mark Boutilier, 27, a New York-based content creator. “He just wants something to help him climb a mountain. It was never meant to be popular.”
In fact, the brand’s disinterest in being a part of more traditional fashion dialogue is what attracted some consumers in the first place.
“We sort of watch it from the sidelines,” said Katie Becker, the chief creative officer of Arc’teryx, during a video call from Vancouver, where the brand is based. “Because we’re not a brand that’s built on trend. We’ve been making the same type of technical product for 35 years. But it’s cool to see it transcend outside the mountain.”
She added: “It’s not like we were, ‘Let’s see how many birds we can get on heads.’ We’re aware of it happening, but we’re not chasing it.”
Arc’teryx was originally founded as Rock Solid in 1989, with its first product being a rock climbing harness. The popular Bird Head toques were introduced 21 years ago, in 2004, and the current versions — the Bird Head, Grotto, Lightweight Bird Head, Bird Word, Mallow and Rho — have not changed, save for new colorways that are released seasonally. They all feature some version of the brand’s logo, an Archaeopteryx, a birdlike dinosaur fossil dating to the late Jurassic period (“We love fossils,” a company spokesperson wrote). Mr. Ocean wore the Grotto toque, while Mr. Chalamet opted for the Bird Head model. Prices range from $45 to $60, but they often sell out and can be found for two to three times as much on resale sites.
Getting too popular has its own pitfalls, especially in the social media age where consumers cycle through trends quickly. Something that was once cool, when adopted too widely, becomes an emblem of being over.
Mr. Boutilier suggested that the verdict is out on whether Mr. Chalamet wearing the toque will put an end to its trendiness, or if it signals the next step of the product’s evolution. “The style from the Frank picture to the Timothée picture is very different,” he said. “It’s been recontextualized a bit, from a gorp-y look to something more Y2K.”
“I feel like they’ve stayed pretty consistent to their roots,” he added about Arc’teryx. “Their stuff is functional, it serves a purpose. Even if that fashion crowd decides to move on to the next thing, they’ll still have a core customer.”
After all, it’s not the first time one of the brand’s products has become something of an internet sensation. In 2021, many TikTok users wore the company’s Alpha AR jackets in the shower to test their waterproof capabilities.
“It’s a bizarre thing to watch, as a brand,” said Ms. Becker. “Maybe part of the allure is that it’s so pure. The more authentic you can be, the more relevant you are.”
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