Once dismissed as suburban dad wear, the quarter-zip has quietly become fashion&rsquo;s favorite shorthand for ambition, irony, and controlled polish in an uncertain year.

For Fall/Winter 2025, one of the most unlikely items in menswear has staged a full comeback. The quarter-zip knit, long associated with consultants, middle managers, and &ldquo;safe&rdquo; dressing, is suddenly everywhere. TikTok. Paris runways. Street style. Even Wendy&rsquo;s is in on the joke. What used to be shorthand for boring has somehow turned into a cultural signal &mdash; and it&rsquo;s happening fast.
The quarter-zip&rsquo;s origins are far more practical than fashionable. It was born in mid-20th-century America, designed for skiers and mountaineers who needed a layer that could regulate temperature without overheating. The partial zipper made sense: wind protection without full insulation. By the 1990s, that same logic carried it into Ivy League campuses and Manhattan offices, where it became the unofficial uniform of consultants, lawyers, and bankers. Reliable. Neutral. Impossible to mess up. Also, for years, deeply uncool.

That reputation is exactly what made it ripe for revival. The turning point came in early 2025, when a TikTok video by Brooklyn creator Jason Gyamfi went viral. In the clip, he and his friends appear in dark quarter-zips, slim glasses, and matcha lattes, jokingly declaring they&rsquo;d quit Nike Tech and coffee in favor of a new era. The video racked up more than 23 million views. The hashtag #QuarterZip crossed 55 million. Google searches spiked by over 2,000 percent in a month. What looked like a meme quickly turned into a movement.
At its core, the joke landed because it felt real. In a moment defined by rising living costs, unstable job markets, and delayed milestones, young people weren&rsquo;t just dressing differently &mdash; they were signaling something. The quarter-zip became a way to &ldquo;look put together&rdquo; without spending like it. A kind of visual shorthand for simulated stability. The internet dubbed it the &ldquo;Quarter Zip Movement,&rdquo; and the name stuck.
From there, the look spread everywhere. Styling meetups popped up in U.S. malls. UK rapper Central Cee shifted his wardrobe, sparking debate online. Loewe and Lacoste folded quarter-zips into their Spring/Summer 2026 collections. NBA 2K26 added them as in-game options. Wendy&rsquo;s even posted a meme of its mascot in a red-and-white quarter-zip, captioned with a knowing &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve upgraded too.&rdquo; Once fast-food brands join the conversation, you know it&rsquo;s no longer niche.

So what makes that quarter-length zipper so appealing? Flexibility. The piece sits perfectly between casual and formal. Zip it down and it&rsquo;s relaxed. Halfway up, it reads polished. Fully zipped, it&rsquo;s functional. It works over a white tee or a button-down, under a coat or on its own, with trousers or denim. The most popular colors for 2025 &mdash; navy, olive, camel, mid-grey &mdash; only add to its quiet, adaptable appeal.
In the end, the quarter-zip isn&rsquo;t just back because it looks good. It&rsquo;s back because it reflects how people feel right now. Careful, ironic, practical, and still aspirational. What once symbolized predictability has become a way of navigating uncertainty &mdash; one zipper pull at a time.

Getty Images.

Why the Quarter-Zip Your Dad Wore Is 2025’s Most Unexpected Style Obsession

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