Hiking shoes, fleeces, convertible cargo pants, outdoor watches and wool socks are increasingly becoming the office uniform of choice for young, male professionals. Their appetite for gear made for hiking, camping and adventuring is greatly exceeding the degree to which they actually hike, camp or go on outdoor adventures. The interpretation as to why is intuitive, but rarely stated in its bare form.
The underlying trend is the effort to counterbalance the taming, almost immasculating nature of urban, professional life, of a submission to a boss and to button-down living. This consumer longs to have a different lifestyle and compromises by at least suggesting that on weekends he goes to the mountains and lives completely differently than he does Monday through Friday. Men sitting in cubicles wearing hiking shoes, picture themselves out in the country with their big dogs, throwing lumber into the backs of their trucks. Even if, in reality, they wouldn't have the slightest idea what to do with a bunch of lumber. Yet again, the daydream wins out in that deceptively simple moment of weighing product benefits and making purchasing decisions.
