Gramicci’s clothing has far surpassed the recreational remit for which it was originally intended. Everyone who is somewhat prudent about clothing will own, or at least heard of Gramicci, regardless of whether they’ve ever attempted to scale a rockface. That red running man is just as frequently spotted on the streets as it is the stone.
It’s not like the brand has desperately tried to break into to this market, either. They’ve always been frivolous, an attitude that dates back to when founder, Mike Graham, named the company after his pseudonym ‘Gramicci’ used for the faux-all-Italian ascent of half-dome in the ’70s.
Gramicci’s story is rooted in climbing but has developed much further, evolving to gain deep ties in streetwear, surf and skate subcultures. This journey into originally unintended realms seems only natural for a brand, with the tagline “Freedom Is Movement”
To chart Gramicci’s trailblazing journey as a brand, you’ve got to go back to the very start, way back to Yosemite National Park in the 1980’s…
Much like they are today, back in 1980, Yosemite’s colossal granite walls were covered with climbers, only they looked pretty different. At the time, specialist gear didn’t really exist, and the bits that did were much too dear for the dirtbags hanging around the park’s notorious Camp Four – this led to climbers acquiring and altering non-specialist garments.
Rugby shirts and combat shorts were big favourites thanks to their hardwearing cotton construction and both quickly became embedded into the Californian climbing uniform.
Most climbers were pretty satisfied with the shoehorned garments, but it was glaringly obvious to Mike Graham that the sport was more than worthy enough to have its own livery. Seeing as many climbers would often wear nothing more than shorts and climbing shoes, Graham set about designing his own considered legwear.
The glaring issue with traditional legwear when used for scaling vertical stone walls, was that it tore pretty quickly. Specifically, in the crotch. Not a fantastic look, and not a fantastic product lifespan for Skinflint dirtbags. This led Graham to research types of legwear that accommodated for movement and found that all of them had one thing in common, a special diamond stitched crotch gusset.
The pick of the bunch was a pair of loose-fitting, high-kicking karate shorts, that allowed for 180-degree leg flexibility. Graham took the shorts, added some front pockets, an adjustable belt and produced them in hardwearing cotton canvas to create the first-ever specialist pair of climbing shorts. They weren’t fancy, but they didn’t need to be, all that mattered was they worked.
Demand for Graham’s shorts sky-rocketed as soon as they hit the stone, with fellow climbers watching enviously as he performed all matter of high-dexterity movements in them. To respond to the immediate influx in demand, Graham needed a word to stamp his products with and settled on Gramicci, a faux-Italian name given to him during an early ascent of the 2,700m face of Half Dome.
The initial karate-inspired ‘G-shorts’ would go on to become the brand’s star product, and before too long, all genres of climbers had a pair on their Christmas list. The G-shorts would go on to become the G-Pants, marking a turning point in dedicated climbing apparel, with Gramicci going on to produce entire collections of stone-scaling garb.
Whereas many climbing brands of the time were putting function before form, Gramicci were not, producing their products in a host of Californian-inspired colours. Bright patterns quickly became synonymous with the brand, as did graphic T-shirts and intriguing fabrics. Each season, Gramicci was looking more and more like a streetwear brand without even trying, and it didn’t take long for people to start noticing…
As with most early adoption, the first non-climbing interest in the products came from Japan. Local vintage dealers and clothing aficionados were instantly taken with the attention to detail that Gramicci was putting into their garments, quickly realising the gear looked just as good on the street as it did the stone.
Back in the U.S.A., custody of Gramicci was also being contested, as skaters and surfers both developed a penchant for the brand’s signature gusseted crotch, and eye-catching designs. Mike Graham could never have envisioned it, but almost overnight his products had been adopted by some of the most stylish circles on the planet.
As skateboarding and surfing would get increasingly more popular throughout the ’90s, so would Gramicci – even the posers had figured out that in order to look the part, they needed to be wearing that little red running man somewhere on their body. By the 2000s the word ‘Streetwear’ was becoming a thing, and Gramicci was firmly grouped under that umbrella without even being able to put their chalky fingers on what it actually meant.
Now, to say Gramicci’s history throughout the 2000s wasn’t chequered would be a lie. The brand has most definitely faced its fair share of struggles since the turn of the millennia, but the important thing is it’s now back to its best, and has been for some time.
Each collection the brand puts out perfectly captivates that free-spirited ethos Mike Graham set out back in 1982. Don’t get it twisted, Gramicci is most definitely still a climbing brand, but its field of usage spreads so much further.
The brand has recently released its Spring Summer 2025 collection, and it’s up there with the best of them. Here’s our favourite bits from SEVEN STORE, suitable for usage on stone and street…
