Feb 16

Feb 16 Marmot Giorgio Coat (2019)

Alex Rakestraw

Lifestyle, Review, Parka

Marmot Giorgio Coat (2019)

Type: Parka / Use: Lifestyle / Face: Wool-Nylon / Insulation: 700 fill down

Technologies: schoeller c_change

Price: $700.00

There’s a classic quote about change. In its first use, it’s bankruptcy.

“How did you go bankrupt?” asks Bill Gorton, a supporting character in The Sun Also Rises.

“Two ways,” replies his companion Mike Campbell. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

What Hemingway captures in those few words is the very nature of evolution.

There’s no elegance to it. Tiny things change in an environment, until a critical mass of tiny causes a very big big. When that shift comes, it is swift and total. There’s a rapid sorting. And at the end, you’re either in or you’re out. In hindsight, this can all look very neat. Even predestined. But it never really is. Some will guess the direction of the tiny things and have a clue towards when and what the big is. But it’s not really urgent that everyone does. Until it suddenly is. And from that moment on it, it’s a whole new game.

—

Marmot is an American outdoors brand famous for its ultralight tents and sleeping bags. Based in California, with a founding story that includes dorm-room tinkering, it - along with Left Coast neighbor Outdoor Research - occupies a quasi-romantic niche best described as “how outdoors people want brands to be.” Clothing is functional and reasonably-priced. Innovation is specific - esoteric, even. And, what the hell, the brand identity doesn’t seem like it’s trying too hard.

This, for reference, is a marmot.

A marmot is an alpine rodent that whistles (whistles!!!) to communicate. It is not a dinosaur, nor is it a famously-difficult climbing route. It’s a floofball. A disarming, organiclab-meets-Disney retro alpine floofball. Historically, that floofall could do a pretty good business selling $100 jackets at Dick’s and $500 sleeping bags elsewhere. It even got lucky when some $600 jackets found a brief (if violent) place in streetwear.

But things changed gradually. And then, all at once.

As fashion infiltrated the outdoors, brands that played by the pretenses of legacy customers found themselves overshadowed by those who anticipated what changes that would bring. Starting in the late 80s, some brands (The North Face among them) began adapting to the changes foreshadowed by lines like Nike Hiking, the precursor to ACG. Others did not. 30 years of oscillations - who’s going fashion? who’s still true outdoors? - followed. And then, in the last five years, the frenzy began.

Sometime between now and 2016, Marmot launched an under-promoted line of urban technical apparel oh-so-imaginatively called “City Tech.” Early models looked like fast-follows of iconic “urban outdoors” styles like Miss Metro and the Maya. Marmot had not anticipated the many tiny directions. While Arc’teryx went to market with full collections of Veilance and 24, Marmot (a core-outdoors gearmaker often seen on expedition with Arc product) looked, well, disarmed.

In the nicest possible words, Marmot was playing from behind. Three years into this frenzied fashion-outdoors Darwinism, however, and it appears they’ve learned a thing or two.

The tentpole of Marmot’s FW19 City Tech line is the Giorgio Coat, a Space Age wool parka with all the nuts and bolts. Because it (like the Frozen Range, Camosun, Himalayan, Oslo, and countless others) costs $700 +/- $50, the features list here might seem familiar.

There’s a waterproof membrane. Here, it’s schoeller’s c_change, a pricy bionic number known for its pairings with wool. There’s insulation. Surprisingly, given the price tag, it’s only 700 fill down. And finally, there’s a host of hidden or minimized autres that serve to keep attention solely on the fact that this is casualwear. The only Marmot branding hit is a wordmark on the hem, and even that is tonal.

Performance is to be expected from a parka like this: warm enough for cold days. Waterproof in freezing rain. If it’s your first expensive coat, you’ll be wowed. But there’s nothing exceptional. Moving on.

The most notable feature of the Giorgio is its styling. Notably, the Giorgio takes a new shape for a men’s pinnacle parka. Unlike the Spyder Metro GTX, this doesn’t feel overtly commercial - between the mixed-media front and detachable hood kerfuffle, the Giorgio is full of risk and boldness that isn’t meant for a shelf at Breck Sports. In fact, I’m not sure if it was meant for anyone.

The Giorgio is wholecut different. With the hood attached, it’s a vaguely-militarist take on the topcoat. With the faux fur ruff out, it’s a technologist’s cut of Gosling’s Blade Runner trench – a modernizing of the classic shearling-collar topcoat, but towards an uncertain end. I could not imagine wearing this with a suit anymore than I could imagine wearing it with a Supreme hoodie. There’s a lot in between, sure, but most parkas of this price range are expected to flex towards one end. Styling-wise, the Giorgio just can’t – but it can make a lot of casual outfits look dramatically more interesting.

Here’s the outfit I wore with it most: navy mock-neck, black chinos, white GORE Stans. It’s borderline biz-caz, but because the colors are dark and the shoes have hidden details, it can pass for “New York creative.” Throwing on the Giorgio, however, takes the tweaks-on-casual thing to a new galaxy. I am still dressed #creatively. But because my outerwear is also a dark neutral and also has details (those media-crossing slash pockets!), I have committed to the bit. I’m not just a smart casual dresser – I have the equivalent of fashion eyewear, in a coat.

It certainly helps that, in szM, the cut of the coat is borderline perfect on my 6’4” 185lbs frame. But that aside, I just can’t really recommend the Giorgio.

It’s clear that Marmot took risks with the design and materials here, and for that, they should be lauded. Risks, however, are risks for a reason. Somewhere between the design brief (conjecture: “update the menswear classic shearling trench”) and the execution, the boldness that lead to choices like mixed-media paneling and the removable hood structure just couldn’t connect.

Marmot can still get it right and come out fine in this outdoors-fashion sorting – it just might be more on the outdoors-as-fashion side of things. I’ve seen some amazing GORE shells coming FW20 that bring the heat of the Concepts x Arc’teryx collab to mass market. Perhaps that where the future lies.