Young Men's 2023 Trend Outlook: Comfort Food But Make It Clothing
2023 Trends
This year will be a lot like 2022, only with retailers taking an even narrower approach, fewer brands and more of the things that work. Excess inventory is likely to create problems throughout the first half of the year and then if we’re lucky and don’t dip into a recession, we can experience a halfway normal back to school. Not normal normal, mind you, but 80% there.
Looking at the 15-25-year-old middle-class, city/suburban U.S. athletic-ish customer, I don’t see a lot changing style wise in 2023. This especially applies to young men, who, like the slow and steady tortoise, are much less inclined to embrace newness. As well, we’ve just gone through some heavy duty trauma courtesy of COVID, so in my opinion people (especially guys) are looking for the style equivalent of meat and potatoes aka comfort food rather than stepping out on ledges.
Yes, there’s been a shift over the past two years from skinny to straight-leg jeans like Levi 501, but I don’t see anyone other than a smattering of guys embracing extra wide bottoms or bell bottoms. And while there’s been a lot of chatter about the death of athleisure looks, young young guys are still wearing Nike Tech Fleece and other tapered joggers. They’re comfortable and youthful and make sense for a demographic who lives at home or is in college and barely has a care in the world other than worrying about their standing among peers.
Given his ongoing popularity and influence, I always keep an eye on Nike collaborator Travis Scott’s Instagram as a guideline for young-young fashion. In the images above (posted between September and December 2022), the uniform is simple, baggier bottoms paired with a t-shirt and Nike sneakers. (That’s Pharrell in the black and white third pic). Nothing shocking! The image on the left was posted in December, so that indicates cargos will continue to be a thing in 2023. The baggier look favors low top sneakers, but that probably won’t apply to certain Retro Jordan releases. (Obviously a whole master class can be done on region and culture specific t-shirt and sweatshirt trends, but I’m not going to delve into that can of worms here.)
With Yeezy no longer an option and questions looming over whether customers will buy Adidas’ version of the brand, a lof of buyers are wondering what silhouettes will benefit from the sudden vacuum. The most obvious answer for the 15-25-year-old is Nike, which recently previewed its take on the Yeezy Slide (above), and Jordan but then again, who knows. Maybe the person who loved Yeezy is bummed out about the take down of his hero and just buys fewer sneakers.
On a side note, I think there’s a tendency to view both Salomon and Asics as providing an alternative for the 15-25-year-old Yeezy customer, but probably not as much as people think.
If you think about the kid shopping at Foot Locker and DTLR, Salomon is just too weird and has no real foundation in the culture to hang its hat on. Asics, especially among city and suburban Tri-State types has a better chance in part because of cool points generated by its association with Ronnie Fieg and other collaborators, but also because of the retro tech look that Balenciaga popularized over the past few years. All the better that Balenciaga thanks to its own stupidity is currently on the out list.
Slip-on shoes and mules will continued to be popular in 2023 with young young guys buying Crocs Classic clog and older young guys (more on them below) buying Birkenstock’s Boston. Every brand is going to make their version (see Dior and Denim Tears above, paired with…sweatpants!) but the kings of the category will remain Crocs and Birkenstock.
Older young-minded guys: Late ‘20s to Death
Style among young older guys appears to be sliding back and forth along a scale that starts with country club grandpa golf swag and ends with Gorpcore (taken from the reference to trail mix described as “good ole raisins and peanuts” and coined by The Cut writer Jason Chen in 2017 ). Gorpcore is mainly worn in the Northeast and Midwest and doesn’t really translate in California or Miami for that matter. At the end of the day, climate plays a big role!
Tyler the Creator is to country club golf as Travis is to athletic-ish young youngs. We’re talking cardigans, vests, polo shirts, slacks, loafers…you know the drill.
As for Gorpcore, I don’t really know who is the king of that category. Frank Ocean dabbles, as do A$AP Rocky and the hosts of “Throwing Fits,” but I wouldn’t say there’s one famous guy known as the flag bearer.
But let’s be real, what is Gorpcore other than an adorable name for the outfits guys of all backgrounds and ages in the Midwest and Northeast have been wearing forever and a day! Really the only difference between an 18-year-old in Chicago in a North Face jacket and wheat Timbs and his 30-year-old Gorpcore loving counterpart is age and brand.
I would list popular Gorpcore brands, but part of the trend is wearing obscure and yet-to-be discovered brands, so the list is constantly changing. [Disclaimer: I have no issue with the obscurity aspect of of Gorpcore! I totally get it and sometimes go down the same rabbit hole myself just to a lesser degree because I’m from NJ and thus am somewhat basic as a birthright.]
Either way, older young guys may have more money but they also have more resonsibilities like rent and possibly even a family, so they buy stuff but not at the same reckless velocity as their young young peers.
For a deeper dive on Gorpcore, I love Clayton Chamber’s Twitter thread (above), which is full of delightful indie brands I’d never heard of before. He highlights Salomon and Asics, both of which he views as positioned to have an awesome 2023.