1) We exist in a "fashion" time when all things at once are true. Style has ceased to cycle - I am selling skinny and wide fits side by side, and there's no rhyme or reason to the macro-patterns. Urban lumberjack is out... or is it? And then we've already cycled back to people discovering "Take Ivy" but 10 years ahead of schedule. The Sliding Window of Looks is all messed up.
B) The cycle of adoption of a very particular style - say GORP - looks a lot like the technology adoption cycle. There's the early players, everyone gets excited, then we hit the "valley of despair" (that's your search term), and then we see mass adoption. GORP been hitting in Japan for over 15-20 years now, (&wander formed 2011; visvim has been doing their very gorped out backpacks since 2010ish (can't be bothered to pin down a year)) which follows peak outdoor in the late 80's- 90's (based on the shapes people choose to ape in product design). We saw it start to ramp up in the USA pre-covid, and then dip and now here we are back in our goretex and ignoring that the deadbird, chouinard, and ralph's preferred sneakers all make garms for harms (LEAF, MARS, Forces, respectively).
For heritage gorp panache, I sustain Filson from our great Pacific Northwest. Especially the duster.
Shoe-pant interface on Lemaire (F) above...perfection.
Two things:
1) We exist in a "fashion" time when all things at once are true. Style has ceased to cycle - I am selling skinny and wide fits side by side, and there's no rhyme or reason to the macro-patterns. Urban lumberjack is out... or is it? And then we've already cycled back to people discovering "Take Ivy" but 10 years ahead of schedule. The Sliding Window of Looks is all messed up.
B) The cycle of adoption of a very particular style - say GORP - looks a lot like the technology adoption cycle. There's the early players, everyone gets excited, then we hit the "valley of despair" (that's your search term), and then we see mass adoption. GORP been hitting in Japan for over 15-20 years now, (&wander formed 2011; visvim has been doing their very gorped out backpacks since 2010ish (can't be bothered to pin down a year)) which follows peak outdoor in the late 80's- 90's (based on the shapes people choose to ape in product design). We saw it start to ramp up in the USA pre-covid, and then dip and now here we are back in our goretex and ignoring that the deadbird, chouinard, and ralph's preferred sneakers all make garms for harms (LEAF, MARS, Forces, respectively).
Look C with a matching gray bag >>>>