Since 1982 Gramicci has been making functional clothing for life in the great outdoors. Built for movement, and loved by countless cultural movements—what started out in a garage in Ventura, California has travelled to the streets of Tokyo and beyond.

It’s easy to take all that heritage for granted, but sometimes it’s good to look back on what you’ve done and where you came from. With that in mind, here’s a rough history of Gramicci—an American outdoor brand, now based in Japan, with an Italian name…

The story starts in California in the early 1970s. A new generation of free-spirited dirt-bag rock-climbers known as the Stonemasters had taken residency at Yosemite National Park, pioneering a new way of climbing—with a strong focus on speed and style. Slowly plodding up routes with the aid of rope stirrups was ditched in favour of cleaner, smoother movements to create ‘free climbing’—a stripped-back, minimalist form of climbing with less reliance on equipment.