What’s Trending in Outdoor Apparel for 2020-2021
Staying on the pulse of apparel and fashion trends is a full-time job. Brand managers, merchandise buyers, event planners, and marketers want to have trendy custom apparel and merchandise to offer their outdoor-loving audience, but their calendar is heart-stopping when it comes to finding a gap.
That’s why we hit up multiple industry conferences like Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show during the year so we can bring the hot trends right to you.
All you have to do? Choose the trends that work best for your apparel line, its objectives, and the needs of your consumers. Our team can collab with you on making your branded custom apparel line come to fruition.
Form meets function is the motto of 2020
Industry-wide, apparel designs are taking a hard left to highlight their sustainable manufacturing processes, active performance capabilities, and high-fashion aesthetics.
Many apparel lines are creatively built to hit the mountains by day and the city streets by night, all while wearing the same piece.
Dubbed “modular design” in the fashion world, more brands are creating pieces that can be ready for a blizzard or a sudden sun shower with the ability to add or remove protective garment pieces like a hood or interior lining.
Textile trend: repurposing/recycling/repairing
Fabric innovations include bringing together eco/sustainability trends with outdoor apparel staples such as repurposing recycled plastic water bottles to make an insulated jacket.
Patagonia has been ringing this bell for some time — urging its consumers to recycle, repair or repurpose used apparel in order to lessen the environmental impact of producing something new as part of their Worn Wear campaign.
OluKai
We work with brands like OluKai in this exact way. Using leftover leather pieces from their shoe lines, we repurpose scraps into completely new custom items. Check out the embossed leather bottle opener cover below.
This is one part of our business we don’t necessarily talk about too often, and we should — not just because it’s trendy but because there are over 80 billion garments made a year generating some 16 million tons of landfill waste.
Not only is it a cost-effective way to make a custom item, but the move towards sustainability marries a brand’s product line tightly into its brand story.
Color and style trend: 1970s vintage alpine vibes
The slopes will be even groovier next season with ski/snowboard apparel decked out with colorways and styles from the 1970s. Can you dig it?
Serene colors, warm taupes, and cafe au lait colors with accented coral hues.
- Sleeveless coveralls
- Contrast stitch piping
- Matching “family” collections so mom, dad, and kiddos can coordinate!
- Tonal color sublimation
- Tri-color striping and color blocking
- Sherpa-lined...everything
Craft beer brand Upslope Brewing and retail apparel brand YoColorado — both clients of ours — have begun to incorporate the same 70s trends into their custom apparel lines.
Upslope Brewing
YoColorado
Theme trend: Functional apparel and waste-free water-saving design
Mainstream apparel brands like GAP, Levi’s, and H&M have launched ethical apparel lines focusing on water saving for a handful of years now, yet, this trend is now being taken a step further in the activewear space.
Outdoor brands are striving to create functionally beautiful wears that are virtually waste-free and water saving.
Backcountry capabilities
It’s a no-brainer outdoor apparel is designed with the elements in mind, but this year, brands are launching lines where high-tech is more embedded than ever.
From adding heating elements to gloves, socks, jackets, and pants to the Helly Hansen Waterproof Tech System outer layer line, outdoor apparel is getting even smarter to withstand whatever extreme weather it may be used in.
This move is in no small part a token to the increasing climate and subsequent extreme weather events seen around the world.
Let’s build your on-trend custom apparel line, together
Work with our branding team to design and produce a custom apparel line that not only takes into account the latest and hottest trends like these but that also represents your brand and all the details that make it unique.