In the last 5-10 years, baggy outerwear has been the most dominant style of clothing on the slopes. It was all about the ‘hip-hop’ fashion and rap and all that sort of nonsense. However, in the last few years, some snowboarders have begun to follow the skateboard trend of tight, skinny pants.
Why is it that tight pants gets so much hate then? Because it’s different. I’ll admit, I hate the tight pants look, but if someone wants to wear insanely tight pants, it’s not really my place to tell them otherwise. After all, if we go back far enough, everyone was wearing bright fluoro one-pieces.
What’s cool?
Whether we admit it or not, slope fashion affects all of us. I remember starting off my first season in Whistler, my outerwear was a standard fit, similar to normal everyday clothing. Nowadays, it’s a baggy fit. I never made the decision to suddenly wear baggy outerwear like everyone else, it just sort of happened along the way and I like the comfort of baggy outerwear.
At the end of the day, how are tight pants any different from how we went from fluoro one pieces to standard 2 piece outerwear? Everything looks weird at first.
Attitude
I’d like to propose that some of the hate is due to the attitudes of people who adopt new fashion trends just to ‘be cool’. Unfortunately, a lot of people who hop on the latest slope fashion trends are the type of people who one day will be singing praises of baggy pants and the next day wearing tight pants.
They’re the same type of people obsessed with being ‘gangsta’ or ‘rock’ or whatever they want to call whatever fad they’re following. People have come to resent that sort of person, especially in a snow culture that’s been built around a history of ‘sticking it to the man’ and being rebels.
Many people don’t like fakeness. They just want to see others being themselves and not worrying so much about what everyone else thinks.
Does it matter?
I don’t think it really matters at the end of the day. We’re all just on the hill to enjoy the slopes and have fun. As long as snow fashion doesn’t get in the way of us having fun, I think people should be free to wear whatever they want.
If we look down on others who dress a little differently, how are we any different from the people who made fun of snowboarders for not skiing. Wouldn’t we just be forcing tight pants wearers to conform to what we think ‘is cool’?
Stop worrying so much about what others are wearing and just have fun. Go snowboarding and enjoy it!
What’s your opinion?