[jinushaun]

I think the term you're looking for is "athleisure". It is mostly associated with Lululemon and yoga pants all day, but I'd argue that TNF was the pioneer of it decades ago as climbing and hiking became mainstream and people started wearing practical outdoor gear everyday.

My problem with athleisure is that, while I enjoy that outdoor gear has gotten more fashionable and fit better; the trend tends to slide more into the "leisure" category than the "athletic" category over time. For people like me who actually do all those things in the marketing material like climb and hike, I find myself quickly running out of legitimate outdoor equipment options. Hell, even Arc'teryx now makes suits and topcoats for the Wall Street crowd! At the end of the day, this stuff still needs to be made by somebody because climbing and expedition hiking isn't going away.

I used to walk into REI and be bombarded by choice, but now more and more of their floor space is being taken over by casual clothing. The backpack area is now mostly laptop and messenger bags. The climbing section has gotten smaller and smaller.

[cafard]

Some years ago, after a visit to a college campus where TNF gear was everywhere, I found myself on a city bus, standing next to a young woman in a TNF sun dress. I guess it was well made, and certainly she looked charming in it, but it didn't seem the sort of thing to be worn on the north face of anything much but Capitol Hill. I was amused.