Patter - 03
UPF gear, Norda's burgeoning street clout and a run club zine...
A good little mix this week…
I guess we really need to start thinking about protective fashion. Claudent is a women’s clothing brand who utilise UPF-rated fabrics on all their garments, giving wearers proper protection against the sun.
Why I think this is interesting?
While technically not activewear, Claudent’s existence is a signal for what’s to come in clothing’s future utility: shielding us from the impacts of climate change.
Activewear brands are often first to adopt these such materials and that’s true of UPF fabrics; those spending hours on the trails need protection. My go-to sun protection when out on a long run in the sun is this long sleeve tee from Soar, with UPF 50 protection.
For some broader context on outdoor pursuits and the heat - the number of deaths in US national parks has increased, put down to heat related factors. As such, I think we’ll only see more and more brands spring up with UPF fabrics as their core offering.
Next up…
Norda have been slowly gaining some clout on the street. Something of an adjacent element to GORP-core’s moment in the sun has been the steady uptick of trail running in the zeitgeist. Norda have struck gold on that and now it seems, their really quite special trail shoes are turning the heads of sneaker and street style folks.
Why I think this is interesting?
Along with the GORP-adjacent looks come a long list of tastemaker-type stockists the world over: HIP, Beams, Meadow and Slamjam to name a few. As such, the shoes have started bleed through from being features in editorial styling to being on the feet of people far removed from Norda’s perceived core customer. I love their journey as a brand and it’s really got me thinking about whether more Nordas on the street eventually results in more runners in the forests.
More on that half-hypothesis shortly…
Something else I found while going down the above rabbit hole was this, Nike’s Pegasus Trail 2 in that sweet Black and Grey colour-way going for well above RRP on Stockx, nearly 3 years after its release. It’s a good good shoe in fairness.
& also…
I’m a real big fan of zines; I think brands should be doing so much more with print as a format.
As part of the Pegasus 40 launch, Nike partnered up with Furies Run Club in Sydney and a few other run clubs in Australia; producing a zine of run routes, delicious local spots and stories of running from the community.
Why I think this is interesting?
This feels like a proper collaborative partnership with the outcomes being something of material newness. In what is a sea of rinse & repeat merch-like partnerships, a zine with locals talking about their cities feels fresh, fun and authentic.
More of this in the world, please.
Some links:
If you’re not wearing Keen Uneeks now, you will be next summer - read this
Blackbird Spyplane’s assessment of what’s coming next once we’re out of the Samba summer
The Instagram page, (di)rilievo polled their community to find the most worn shoes of the summer…Norda came out on top…