Breaking news: It seems that male Gen Z-ers on TikTok are officially reaching adulthood. What’s my evidence? A surge of TikTok videos that seem to show Gen Z men reveling in sophistication and elegance — just by sliding on a quarter-zip sweater.
The original audio in this video comes from user Jason Gyamfi, who posted a video wearing a quarter-zip that gained over 3 million likes. “We don’t do Nike Tech, we don’t do coffee, it’s straight quarter-zips and matcha around here,” he says. “He was talking about putting on a Nike Tech to come outside,” he says, gesturing toward his friend in the video, “I told him, what are you doing? You upgraded in life, you wear glasses now, you wear quarter-zips, we don’t do Nike Tech.”
The trend is focusing on the specific upgrade from wearing Nike Techs, a popular performance tech fleece jacket from Nike, to a quarter-zip. Many young men are joining in on the trend, especially young Black men — calling themselves “YGs” (Young Gentleman) and making jokes that signify how “adult” they’re feeling.
“When the gc talking ab getting on the game tonight, but you don’t have time to do such low vibrational activities anymore,” this video says as the guy in it shakes his head and walks away while sipping on a matcha. “Please don’t let this be a phase,” one of the top comments said.
“It’s not just clothing, it’s a whole movement,” the guy in this video says.
“Day 1 of posting until Ralph Lauren sees this and sends us a quarter zip,” this video says. The guys in this video have briefcases and matchas in hand, and they’re walking out of a building to the tune of “Life’s Incredible Again” from The Incredibles. Brands like Starbucks and Lacoste have even commented on the video, which has already gained over 1 million likes.
“Guys wear a Quarter zip once and start acting like this,” the video says. The gentleman in this video shares several different lines, some of my favorites being “I don’t do hangouts. I network.” “She messaged me on Instagram. I said I prefer LinkedIn, possibly email.”
It also seems that many women and girls online are all here for it.
One user posted a TikTok that went viral, sharing how they hope this trend will lead others to learn more about Black Dandyism, a cultural fashion movement among Black people starting back in the early 18th century. The creator of this TikTok says he’s already seen the trend evolve from quarter-zips to full suits and black coffees. “It’s going toward Black Dandyism,” he said.
Recently reported in After School, retail data is showing that there’s been a 25% rise in quarter-zip sales for 18 through 24-year-olds. On the one hand, this is a meme that’s taken off quite quickly, and there’s clearly plenty of jokes to make about the business casual attire, the professionalism, the LinkedIn-obsessed and the network-driven adult man that you might see sporting one of these bad boys. It reminds me a lot of this comedian who makes skits on “private equity backed comedy” — and you can often find him, of course, in a quarter-zip..
However, is there something to be said about why there’s such a surge of interest right now? Does it signify a new era for Gen Z? I’m not the only one who thinks so.
There’s a mix of opinions on this one. For one, some people do agree: “We are literally growing up together y’all,” one top comment said. Others remain hesitant: Some think it’s just a trend, some can’t stand business casual attire, some are linking it to the rise of conservatism, some say they’ve always been wearing quarter-zips and some think it’s a recession indicator. “We elder millennials didn’t wear business casual as a style, we wore it because we couldn’t afford a second wardrobe,” one user commented. Well, yikes!
Regardless of what’s at stake here, I think for now we should celebrate this shift for several reasons. We can all come together and make lighthearted jokes about the attire often known to be popular among finance bros, but we may be swinging toward an era of some serious shifting fashion trends — especially for young Gen Z men.
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