Back in the chilly winter of February 2012, Mark Smith tweeted:
“In Chapel en le Frith up in t’hills watching the lads play football. I am wearing a Sunny Sports muffler. I am Hikerdelic.”
…and that was that. The word became a thing and the thing became a brand.
Ten years down the line, through the Proper Magazine group chat, Mark shares a picture of the Sunny Sports muffler in question. It’s turquoise with alternating shades of red - one dark and rusty, the other deeper - and a pattern similar to those you’d see in Native American print, or anything that Pendleton might make.
In that sense, then, to be Hikerdelic is to embrace prints with psychedelic motifs in the great outdoors. It’s the unison of surrealist patterns, symmetry and clashing composition with the subtler calm repetition of nature. The same nature that provides you with dramatic views, a sense of awe, and some good surroundings for a football match.
The first selection of Hikerdelic t-shirts went live in 2017, featuring the OG Hikerdelic graphic with the words morphed into the landscape, the trees a somewhere between a mushroom and an oak, the sun a ray of purple and yellow.
Since then, the graphic - like any good psychedelic experience - has morphed into various versions of itself, expanding to include totems like Derek and Eric, and reaching from the mountainside to the moon and back.
Hikerdelic is more than its graphics, though, and the brand has grown to release rugby shirts inspired by Yvon Chouinard, lined fleeces, corduroy tracksuits, smocks, coats galore and shoe collaborations with Novesta, Kickers and Yogi.
An AW19 inaugural collaboration with Barbour saw the brand shine a kaleidoscope of Hikerdelic over established Barbour archive pieces. The brand is highly coveted, with samples on eBay, creative collections with Urban Outfitters and motives like Tees for Trees.
The latest SS22 release continues to explore the space of psychedelic mountaineers. During their research, Hikerdelic professed they found a lot of synergies between the inclinations of astronauts and mountaineers, and even deeper than that, synergies between the gear worn by both groups.
Shop the collection of Hikerdelic clothing available now at Yards Store.
