[Zippogriff]

The right jeans and sneakers (and hoodie, and "tech pants", et c., et c.) can even help. There's definitely a techie look, and it's not the same as poor-people/low-class clothes (which some of the same categories of items can fall into, like jeans and sneakers).

[wincy]

I've heard Arc'teryx is all the rage in SV? Is that true? Out here in the midwest the only person I've seen wearing it is a hipster doctor of mine.

[Zippogriff]

I think any expensive, unnecessarily-rugged-for-what-you-actually-do outdoor clothing counts, but yes, that name comes up a lot. I think it should be regarded as a mid-prestige brand to wear, for tech fashion, above, say, REI store brand, which is at the bottom edge of (and perhaps hanging somewhat over) acceptably hip. The top-end you probably can't find stocked in normal outdoors stores in the US (they're invariably European).

Ideally your rain jacket is appropriate for weeks-long alpine or warmer-weather arctic expeditions, and costs at least $250. It should pack down unbelievably small so you can excuse/brag-about the expense as an expression of "minimalism". You wear it on your $1000 bike for your 2km commute to the coffee shop to work on your MacBook. Shoes should be ready for many kilometers of hard, high-performance trail running, and should have been priced to match. Or else rock climbing or bouldering. No activity is more hip-tech-culture-approved and laudable than rock climbing, at least for now (the trends come and go).

There's that stuff, then there's the hipster-mimicking tech-fashion sect in $200 Japanese selvedge jeans and $300ish Red Wing Heritage workboots. There's plenty of overlap and mixing of the styles, though.

Don't forget the right hoodie. If the aglets aren't metal and the zipper's not a heavy, smooth-but-crunchy-feeling YKK, you've screwed up.

If in doubt, just shop REI and Patagonia. Little they stock will be too far off the mark.