Outdoors gear can seem like an arms race: either you’re chasing summits with hyper-technical capital G gear, or you’re in existential peril.
That’s why Earth Studies (formerly it Vanishes) is so disarming. If anything, it’s peaceful.
Founded in 2018 as an urban hiking club to encourage a new, slower pace to outdoor experiences, Portland, Oregon-based it Vanishes—which in 2021 rebranded as Earth Studies—self-describes as Experimental Outdoorism™. More recently, after a few very limited, very GORPy product drops, the outdoors-minded apparel line has grown into the sort of cult brand outdoor cool kids’ savor. It’s no surprise why. The garments are tasteful. Their functions are subtle. And they’re designed for use outdoors—but look damn good in the city, too.
What’s been called “a brand for people who love the outdoors but aren’t outdoorsy” is much more than a shrug at the idea of an upper bound. Directed by established designer Rob Darmour, a lifelong appreciator of nature and born and bred Oregonian (and current Creative Director of Portland-based Tanner Goods), the brand and its guiding mind find outdoors gear to often be overpowered, and more aesthetically-driven casual clothing lacking function.
Earth Studies proposes a middle ground: contemporary, archive-inspired functionwear meant for those of us not named Jimmy Chin.