After Gorpcore: 'Quiet Outdoor'

Gorpcore's Next Chapter

"Isn't gorpcore over?"

Half right, half wrong. The data shows demand is still enormous — but the 'flavor' the public wants has clearly changed. The era of loud hiking gear plastered head to toe in techwear logos is setting, and the era of 'Quiet Outdoor' has opened: minimal logos, refined silhouettes, moving elegantly between city and nature.

And three brands of entirely different origins have converged at exactly this intersection: Merrell 1TRL, the American hiking house with forty years of tradition; and wander, the Tokyo label founded by Issey Miyake alumni; and ROA, the Italian brand forged in Milan's street scene.

Here's a dissection of how these brands — starting from different lines — now command the most refined quiet outdoor market of all.

and wander: When Issey Miyake Went to the Mountains

Tokyo, 2011. Two designers with deep roots at Issey Miyake launched a brand on the idea of "living the mountain life in the city too."

Their approach is completely different from the typical outdoor brand. They don't make 'functional clothes' — they are 'fashion designers engineering functional clothes.' Onto top-tier tech fabrics like Polartec and Pertex, they layer minimal silhouettes and reflective details, striking the perfect balance between hiking and the city. This is why the fashion world treats and wander not as mere outdoor gear, but as 'the fusion of avant-garde design and utility.'

ROA: The Hiking Boot Forged in Milan's Street Scene

ROA, named after a hiking route in the Dolomites of northern Italy, was born in Milan in 2015. With 'Slam Jam' — a heavyweight of the Italian streetwear scene — involved in its conception, it drew the fashion channel's spotlight from birth.

The core of ROA's philosophy is 'kudu leather.' Sourced from the greater kudu antelope raised in the rough African wild, it ages beautifully with wear, molding to the shape and movement of the wearer's foot. "Not for function, but for being alive." That slogan landed a perfect counterpunch on an outdoor footwear market obsessed with function alone.

Proof of 'Quiet Outdoor': ROA Meets and wander

That these two brands collaborated in two consecutive seasons — FW25 and then SS26 — sends the market a very strong signal.

The backdrop of the first collaboration campaign was the moss-covered Shirakoma forest in Nagano, Japan. ROA's philosophy of capturing traces as time passes, and and wander's philosophy of making the longest-wearing clothes from the highest-quality fabrics, met in the shared language of 'longevity' and 'the mystery of nature.' This recurring collaboration is no one-off buzz play — it's proof of a solid partnership pioneering the quiet outdoor genre together.

Merrell 1TRL: The American Giant Translating a 40-Year Archive into Fashion

Into this delicate market, Merrell — the American performance shoe giant — has entered the fray with '1TRL,' its fashion-focused line.

Their weapon: excavating the vast hiking archive accumulated over forty years since the brand's 1981 founding, and reworking it for the present. The collaboration spectrum is overwhelming — from skateboard labels like Supreme and Dime to British heritage brands, and even and wander. This spring, throwing a Moab Slide launch party in London's Shoreditch, they drove home the positioning perfectly: "the shoe you wear outdoors by day, then to the pub with friends by night."

Brand Points Worth Knowing

The Aesthetics of Walking Slowly
The name ROA is both an actual hiking route in the Italian Dolomites and Italian for "going slow." The brand philosophy embedded within: the goal isn't summiting quickly, but savoring the very time spent existing in nature.

One Piece of Cloth, One Philosophy
and wander founder Shu Sato spent twenty years at Issey Miyake. The architectural philosophy of 'making clothes from a single piece of cloth' flows intact into and wander's simple yet sculptural outdoor patterns.

A Freelancer in a Giant's Embrace
Merrell 1TRL sits under the massive parent Wolverine World Wide — home to Saucony, Keds, and more — but operates as a fully independent creative team. That freedom is the decisive reason discerning, hip brands like Supreme and and wander choose 1TRL as a partner.