In the event you’ve seen more than just a few of your style-acutely aware colleagues dressing like they’re extras in some futuristic, sci-fi dystopian thriller these days, you are not alone. Techwear is a bona fide trend, and it looks like it’s here to stay.

Techwear at its essence is precisely what it sounds like: “technology” (sometimes within the loosest sense of the word) which you can wear in the form of intricately crafted clothing designed by a bunch of people whose rallying cry is never sacrificing type for function. At the moment, the perfect techwear items—the ones you’re most likely to see lusted after on-line—come with enough functional particulars to fulfill even probably the most ardent gear wonk, whether he’s spelunking his way by a cave or speed-walking to catch the subway.

As a style movement in its own proper, techwear has been effervescent up within the tradition for a minute now. There’s just something satisfyingly reassuring about wearing clothing that may withstand way more than it’ll ever must, or so the thinking goes. Call it doomsday prepping for clothing enthusiasts. Call it man’s last desperate grasp for the comforting familiarity of the analog world in an more and more isolated digital reality. I call it a damn good look, for those who can pull it off.

Luckily for you, there are five big names that are inclined to dominate the conversation (a couple of of ’em you may already be acquainted with), and, as with almost all niche subcultures, knowing which names to drop is half the struggle to fitting in. Provided you know what’s good, picking up the lingo will be a cinch. How do you do, fellow techwear fans?

Urban techwear defines an offshoot of roadwear in which technical apparel is styled with nods to the dystopian future portrayed in ‘80s and ‘90s media. This is sui generis techwear: matte GORE-TEX jackets, black cargo pants, sling bags, zippers – you name it. Draped in blacks and grays, one dressed in urban techwear looks like a cross between Stable Snake and Shadowrun. Add in the brands named like insurgent factions (alk phenix, Stone Island, ACRONYM, Guerilla Group), and it’s simple to see where city tech finds both its inspiration and its edge.

All the styling conventions that make techwear so radically totally different from the everyday hoodies-and-sneakers range of recent informalwear are almost caricatured by the military-inspired, aggressively-cut clothes that encompass it. Make no mistake: dressing in city tech will get you bizarre looks on the subways. But just as severely, the clothes are so goddamn cool.

There’s a reason movies like Blade Runner have stayed rooted in common tradition: over-the-top, future-going through functionality just looks badass.

When you have any kind of queries concerning where along with how to make use of tech gear clothing, you possibly can email us in our own webpage.