Professional men are still obsessed with the quarter-zip. Here's why.

I can't afford a Dior bag, so I tried their $325 massage instead. Here's what it was like.

I tested straight-leg jeans from Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Gap. One pair really blew me away.

As a young(ish) millennial whose style of dress has been described as ranging from hedge fund intern to European literature Ph.D. candidate, I like to see what my male peers are wearing. If one enduring trend has struck me recently, it's the quarter-zip.

In fact, when Brooks Brothers — which sells tops in cotton, cashmere, and performance materials — unveiled its Spring/Summer 2027 collection last Thursday at Radio Park in Rockefeller Center, a baby-blue quarter-zip was among its latest offering.

"It used to be you would wear a suit and tie to go to work, now…there's no one definition of how to go to work," Brooks Brothers creative director Michael Bastian told Business Insider, adding that the younger generations are drawn to the heritage brand because "there's a certain reliability there."

Google Trends shows that searches for "men's quarter zip" have risen by more than 300% over the past five years, predictably spiking in the fall each year. A quick look at last year's social media trends showed that TikTok personality Jason Gyamfi, who shared a video of himself touting it, is partly responsible for the spike. And in 2026, the numbers rose dramatically again, outpacing last year's spike.

After speaking with fashion pros, I understood why men like me are still flocking to the garment: It allows men to look competent in today's corporate world while making as little effort as possible. And Brooks Brothers isn't the only brand continuing to lean in.

Lyst data shows that Ralph Lauren dominates the searches for men's quarter-zips, though Alo Yoga is catching up. Even Adidas has a $220 quarter zip sweatshirt.

Scott Liebenberg, CEO of Tapered Menswear, a brand specializing in clothing for men with athletic builds, described what I had noticed. "A blazer says I tried. A hoodie says I didn't," he told Business Insider. "The quarter-zip somehow says, 'I didn't try and still look better than you,' and that's exactly the aspirational mood right now: competence without visible effort."

It's why the quarter-zip has endured as a staple of the professional male wardrobe — it's provided workers with exactly what they needed to convey who they are in the workplace in the easiest way possible.

Even before young men like me learned to appreciate the quarter-zip, it was already a staple of the modern male wardrobe. Jason Cater, chief creative officer at Peter Millar, told me why.

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