UNDERCOVER Enters Its Second Golden Age of Great Outdoor Gear
Remember UNDERCOVER's Nike collection? That line, called Gyakusou, was underrated in its day, especially early on, and consistently served up a strong selection of running gear equally technical and stylish with undersung sneakers to match.
Time is on UNDERCOVER's side here, hindsight being 20/20 and all. But UNDERCOVER's collaborative The North Face line has all the makings of Gyakusou 2.0.
UNDERCOVER and The North Face's Soukuu collections began only a year or so ago but they're already on drop number four. And they're just getting better and better.
The collab is remarkably understated all things considered, with an emphasis on real-deal trek gear over sleekly trendy fare, but that only makes it that much better. Think of it less as wildly flex-worthy clothes and more like outdoor gear that just so happens to be tastefully cool.
Jun Takahashi, founder of UNDERCOVER, takes his running seriously and Soukuu follows suit.
This is a capsule of lightweight windbreakers that can transition from crisp morning to toasty afternoon, big-brimmed hats for blocking out the sun, lace-free high-top sneakers designed for all-day all-terrain adventures.
The few ties that Soukuu maintains to UNDERCOVER proper are limited to things like all-caps branding and street-savvy graphic accents that swirl between navies and reds, the latter being a signature Soukuu shade. It really does look less like an UNDERCOVER collection than a series of lightly renewed The North Face staples.
Like Gyakusou, which is presumably on hiatus at best, Soukuu is function as fashion. It'll make you look good while you work out but only because these clothes are pared back to their absolutely essential form.
Soukuu will get the job done when it releases on April 10 via The North Face's website.
And in a few years, when we're all looking back on the since sold-out drops, we'll have to admire its uncomplicated good looks from afar.
