Workwear on the Rise

Workwear Written by Logan Fortenberry / Designed by On the Rise Olivia Miller / Illustrations by Julia Jones

As skateboarding’s popularity has been on the rise due to its recent trendiness on social media, certain fashion trends have been rising with it. A pair of Dickies pants paired with a Carhartt beanie is a much more popular and stylish look today than it would have been just a few months ago. What has caused this sport and its subculture of fashion to move into the limelight? To put it simply, TikTok. TikTok itself has been soaring in popularity and has quickly established itself as a large cultural influence over the past couple of years. Ideas that trend on TikTok very quickly become popular in mainstream society, including topics such as music, political ideas, hobbies, and fashion. Skateboarding is just one example of a hobby that has been increasingly sought after in recent months thanks to TikTok. Many skaters have been joining the social media app as a way to share their skate clips and to have the opportunity to garner more attention than they may usually receive on other social media platforms. In order to bring in this attention, many skaters have begun to appeal to TikTok’s algorithm by creating clips with flashy editing, popular songs, and stylish outfits. This influx of skateboarders that are trying to be trendy in order to gain more views has created the rise of what’s deemed the “skater style.” This skater style contains outfits that are inspired by the comfortable, yet durable workwear looks that skaters usually go for. This workwear is combined with brand names to create a more stylish exaggeration of how skaters usually dress. The integration of workwear fashion into the mainstream has caused items such as utility jackets, cargo pants, beanies, and skate shoes to become staples of current fashion trends. Many of these items that were originally worn for their utility advantages only are now being worn as a statement to show off one’s fashionability. “Workwear fashion” has become its own division of the fashion world. A quick Google search of the term will bring up images of people in utility jackets, high-water work pants, beanies, skate shoes, and sometimes even work boots. As a result of this heightened popularity of workwear, some companies are beginning to shift from focusing on reasonably priced, durable products to creating more fashionable products. Most of these products, such as brands like Dickies or Carhartt, are priced moderately low compared to the prices of other brands of workwear pants. This is because their current target market is blue-collar workers who simply need clothes to work in that are affordable, yet well-made so as to not get damaged while performing manual labor. If the fashion world’s admiration of workwear continues to grow, we might begin to see these companies shift their target audience from working-class people with manual labor-focused jobs to fashionable teenagers. We may quickly notice a change in their marketing style, website layout, and most importantly, the price of their merchandise if this popular craze continues. This raises the question of whether the trendiness of workwear ultimately defeats the purpose of reasonably priced durable products. As for now, the workwear style is in.