Look up functional clothing brands first. They don’t call themselves “techwear” nor are they traditional techwear brands. Keywords like “threeway stretch pants” will yield results from companies that make pants for military, outdoors activities, construction, etc. The aesthetics will vary but will often be the same as ‘techwear’, but IMO usually the pants are more aesthetically pleasing whereas tops tend to vary and stray from techwear.
Truwerk
511
Didriksons
POC Sports
G-STAR RAW (high quality and matches the aesthetics, but IME the materials aren’t “technical”/functional)
If you want to mix aesthetics while retaining functionality, look up Japanese construction clothes or fashion brands that make clothes in similar styles. These will be more baggy than the western techwear.
But more “techwear” specific brands will be expensive usually. Here are the commonly suggested brands
Acronym - https://acrnm.com/
Enfin Levé - https://enfinleve.com/
Nemen - https://www.nemen.it/
Arc’Teryx - https://arcteryx.com/
Veilance - https://arcteryx.com/us/en/veilance
Orbit Gear - https://www.orbitgear.net/
Nike ACG - https://www.nike.com/acg
Riot Division - https://riotdivision.tech/
Guerrilla Group - https://www.guerrilla-group.co/
ROSEN X - https://rosen-store.com/collections/rosen-x
I’ve had my 5.11 Tactical boots for about a year and the soles are already fucked off and they’re generally in poor shape lol, though I live a very rugged lifestyle so idk.
Yeah, i was gonna say i'm not a fan of 5.11. Do they have goodyear welts on the soles? You might be able to get them re-soled with vibram outsoles. Idk how much it cost me last time but i want to say likw ~70$ at a shoe repair shop.
Do they even make goodyear military boots? From google search it looks like there are fashion oriented boots in the style of combat boots, but not actual combat/law enforcement shoes with goodyear welts.
Dunno, i haven't worn 5.11 in years. My last pair of combat boots were some corcorans i picked up ~10 years and 2-3 sets of soles ago. And then ~5 years ago i finally let myself be convinced that "ankle support" isn't real and got some light weight hybrid trail running shoes and never looked back.
Yeah 511 is a military/police contractor, so expect American contractor quality lol. I would look for outdoors companies if you want durability, perhaps with origins in areas where people actually do heavy outdoor activities (Didriksons is Swedish for example). A lot of military equipment take inspiration from extreme sports gear since those people are likely using the gear more than soldiers, and in the past few years sports gear and techwear have been taking inspiration from each other.
So many companies have been bought out and switched to lower quality materials over the last few decades. : p it's hard to even tell who still makes good boots these days.
Look up functional clothing brands first. They don’t call themselves “techwear” nor are they traditional techwear brands. Keywords like “threeway stretch pants” will yield results from companies that make pants for military, outdoors activities, construction, etc. The aesthetics will vary but will often be the same as ‘techwear’, but IMO usually the pants are more aesthetically pleasing whereas tops tend to vary and stray from techwear.
If you want to mix aesthetics while retaining functionality, look up Japanese construction clothes or fashion brands that make clothes in similar styles. These will be more baggy than the western techwear.
But more “techwear” specific brands will be expensive usually. Here are the commonly suggested brands
I also like ACW/A Cold Wall clothes.
I’ve had my 5.11 Tactical boots for about a year and the soles are already fucked off and they’re generally in poor shape lol, though I live a very rugged lifestyle so idk.
Yeah, i was gonna say i'm not a fan of 5.11. Do they have goodyear welts on the soles? You might be able to get them re-soled with vibram outsoles. Idk how much it cost me last time but i want to say likw ~70$ at a shoe repair shop.
Do they even make goodyear military boots? From google search it looks like there are fashion oriented boots in the style of combat boots, but not actual combat/law enforcement shoes with goodyear welts.
Dunno, i haven't worn 5.11 in years. My last pair of combat boots were some corcorans i picked up ~10 years and 2-3 sets of soles ago. And then ~5 years ago i finally let myself be convinced that "ankle support" isn't real and got some light weight hybrid trail running shoes and never looked back.
Eh I have a pair of used Doc Martens I’m attempting to break in. I’ll miss the side zipper though.
Yeah 511 is a military/police contractor, so expect American contractor quality lol. I would look for outdoors companies if you want durability, perhaps with origins in areas where people actually do heavy outdoor activities (Didriksons is Swedish for example). A lot of military equipment take inspiration from extreme sports gear since those people are likely using the gear more than soldiers, and in the past few years sports gear and techwear have been taking inspiration from each other.
So many companies have been bought out and switched to lower quality materials over the last few decades. : p it's hard to even tell who still makes good boots these days.
there are some indie studios that make some decent stuff, but they tend to be very expensive and have nonexistent customer service lol