The Thuggie - Long, Comfortable, Good
In skiing, you can never have too much of a good thing – so it seems. For decades, skiers were judged by length – I experienced a similar judgement in the locker room during my basketball days, but fortunately in this regard I’m referring to skis (refer to my basketball blog – it’s a short read). Simply put, the longer the ski, the better you were, at least in your mind. Images of a 20-something Glen Plake, and his multi-colored mohawk, shredding mogul lines on 223 cm downhill skis still get replayed over and over in my dreams (he’s still a badass). Now, skis are shorter and fatter than ever and have more in common with a kneeboard than they do their arrow-straight ancestors.
In the 80s, one’s ski stature was also easily established via their chosen ski-wear ensemble. The first half of the decade, the “tighter-the-better” half, showcased very little in regard to the available color spectrum – aka “the-navy bluer-the-better”. The latter half, simply put – a seizure inducing “brighter-the-better”.
Today, the brightness of the latter half of the 80s is very much alive, but today’s newschool fusion of style and athleticism demands a roomy, oversized fit to everything. Pants are longer and wider, coats are the size of lawn and garden bags, and hoodies are longer and way “hoodier” than ever. Nothing represents this more than the Thuggie; a hoody with so much steez (that’s newschool for style) you’ll be wishing you hadn’t donated your 223s to that ski fence in Glacier.
The British Columbia-based Thuggie claims to be founded in both Whistler and Vancouver – they’re PNW locals! Flexibility reigns supreme in the world of the Thuggie – no pants, no hat, no shoes, no socks, no underpants, no money – no problems.
A wakeboarding mute grab? No problem!
Taking a picture of someone taking a picture of you? No problem!
Standing on angular rocks, under a bridge with friends? No problem!
Hanging in a parking lot in the back of a car with seemingly nothing else to do? No problem!
Escalating? No Problem!
Doing whatever it is this guy is doing? No f’ing problem!
(Photos courtesy of Thuggie - Why Not Apparel Inc.)
The Thuggie is a celebration of style; a colorful trend explosion, with just a hint of irony, in an active world longing for the next oversized, super long, overly hoody, enormously baggy opportunity for self expression. As for myself, I’d love to get caught skiing in a Thuggie - preferably shredding some spring bumps at Sun Valley on a mono ski (Lib Tech makes a mono ski by the way). I’ll also longingly don a Thuggie while working on my basketball blog. Irony?
