More Than Just a Beanie

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.