Far from alpine performance, Arc’terx’s Veilance line’s latest product is a GORE-TEX tote bag, and judging from the reactions, fans aren’t all that pleased.
Arc’teryx, a brand that found its foothold in providing industry-leading functional apparel and gear tailored to the outdoors – hiking, climbing, skiing – has infiltrated the fashion industry, opening it up to new audiences while creating new points of entry.
While this new position may not have initially been by choice as it was thrust into the mainstream by the likes of Drake, the late Virgil Abloh, and his hard-shell tinkering via Off-White, Arc has taken it in its stride with the launch of System_A and its Jil Sander collaboration.
Through its high-end, city-focused Veilance line, it’s kept somewhat of a niche presence in the industry for a while now, but due to price-based accessibility and lowkey branding, and hasn’t achieved the same mainstream success as Arc’.
Arc’teryx’s creep into fashion has been a point of contention amongst its community as some of the old guard and functional users feel it’s diluting the brand, and, unsurprisingly, they feel a GORE-TEX shopper epitomizes this.
The bag (dubbed the Monad Re-System Tote Bag) has cropped up on the Veilance site, MATCHESFASHION, Browns, Selfridges, SSENSE, and FARFETCH is said to be “sustainably crafted in Canada from excess GORE-TEX PRO fabric.”
It comes complete with a taped seam construction, two classic top handles, an open-top, waterproof lamination.
It’s pretty hard to imagine any practical hiking scenario in which this bag would find use unless, of course, your local Tesco is situated up a mountain, or you’re looking to bring your lunch back down from the Snowdon visitor center on a rainy day.
That being said, if it’s making use of scraps that would otherwise go unused, what’s the harm done?
If you’ve got a spare $200 burning a tote-bag-sized hole in your pocket, you can keep your bread and apples dry by heading over to the Veilance site now.
