How Realtree Camouflage Became a Cool-Kid Essential

As far as I know, hunting has not become a popular hobby in downtown Manhattan. But you may be forgiven for thinking just that, especially as it’s become hard to walk through Dimes Square without being confronted by a whole duck blind’s worth of Realtree camouflage. Even if you don’t know the name, you know the pattern: a camouflage made up of photo-realistic leaves, twigs, and bark usually used by those in more wooded locales than Canal St.

Technically, Realtree is a brand—its name has become a sort of metonym for the patterns it sells as “Advantage Classic Camo” and “Advantage Timber Camo.” There are a handful of other similar patterns made by other companies, like Mossy Oak, but Realtree is by far the most commonly sighted in New York. The first Realtree pattern was hand-drawn by Bill Jordan, who founded the company in 1986, and was designed specifically for hunters. Quickly, Realtree became one of the most recognizable camouflage patterns in a booming market. The brand naturally spread to adjacent lifestyle-focused territory with licensees like Wrangler and sponsorship deals with NASCAR. Streetwear caught on quickly, with brands like Supreme, Stüssy, and Nike working with Realtree on camouflage offerings.

Now, Realtree is popping up in more unexpected places. Online Ceramics has a trippy Realtree cap, while the cult brand Praying has a whole series of Realtree pieces, including its popular “Slightly Fatter NY” baseball hats and a bikini set—plus a new skirt. On the other end of the New York fashion spectrum, Randy’s Garments released four head-to-toes Realtree designs. Then, of course, there are the Realtree Crocs, which are hard not to spot on the hipper sidewalks of the city. While other camouflage patterns’ military roots can pose an ethical minefield, as a hunting pattern Realtree is comparatively uncontroversial. When it comes to camo, people would rather look like they kill deer than people.

Even with these high-profile streetwear endorsements, Realtree remains a hunting brand. “That's where the authenticity comes from, and we have to make sure the balance stays correct,” says Jill Slocumb, the company’s director of retail and brands, and who has handled licensing of Realtree camouflage for the past 23 years. “These fashion companies don't bring in a lot of business in pure royalties, but they put our patterns and brand in front of a new set of eyes that have never seen it,” she explains. Still, she says, “We always go back to our core, that hunting consumer that brought us to the dance.”

Those rural bona fides contribute to the pattern’s in-vogue status. It’s worth remembering that Realtree has been popular since the 90s—which means that now, it fits in perfectly with the 90s and Y2K style that has been popular of late. “In downtown New York and Brooklyn, there are always people whose cruising altitude for getting dressed is some level of irony or subversiveness,” says Lawrence Schlossman, host of the podcast Throwing Fits (and owner of five pieces of Realtree camouflage). “I think a lot of young people use fashion to make a statement, and often that statement is one of irony.”

Realtree’s origins can’t help but imbue the pattern with political connotations. For more mainstream liberals, Realtree might represent the rural “Red State America '' they fear. For young, hip, and politically (or culturally) left-leaning individuals, wearing Realtree might be less about the ironic appropriation of far-off rural culture than it is about triggering the liberals they live amongst (see also: Red Scare’s ISIS T-shirt).

But that rural quality is not always so politically charged. “There are a lot of transplants in these neighborhoods,” says Jon Caramanica, pop music critic and writer of the men’s Critical Shopper column at the New York Times. “There's a lot of people coming from rural or rural adjacent places, and I do think that wearing this does trigger a light nostalgia.'' In Caramanica’s opinion, Realtree lets new transplants to New York say, “'I'm urban and maybe even a little urbane, but not so much that I've been totally decontextualized from the place from which I come."

Culturally, camouflage has become just another all-over print alongside the paisleys, flower patterns, and animal prints popularized by brands like Noah and 18 East. It’s just another bold thing to mix into your wardrobe.

But Realtree’s photo-realistic quality and rich leaf and shadow details make the pattern feel more sophisticated than other prints. “I think the detail of the camo and that photo quality lends it to being dressed up in kind of decadent, sophisticated ways,” says Senzel. There is something un-camouflage about the patterns depicting, as Caramanica says, “A whole living garden,” making it whimsical compared to other patterns. It has a “kind of naturalistic, dare I say, artistic approach,” he says.

It’s also easy enough to find. A search for “Realtree” on Depop renders nearly 2500 results. “Most of the examples we are seeing out and about are bought second-hand,” says Senzel, “if you're going into an L Train Vintage hoping to find something Realtree, I can't imagine that they'd disappoint.”

To confirm my suspicions, I checked in the man who might observe Dime Squares fashion more than anyone else: Chad Senzel, who spends his weekends slinging vintage on the corner of Ludlow and Canal. “I've been noticing it a lot more and it's intriguing to me,” he confirmed. “I saw like half a dozen people wearing Realtree pants the other day.” The weekend prior, Senzel had sold a pair of made in the USA Realtree Wrangler jeans. After sharing a photo of the jeans on his Instagram story he immediately had a customer put them on hold. Two others joined the waitlist. “I definitely get excitement around things via Instagram stories, but it is unusual to have three people either actively trying to buy something—especially pants, where fit is so imperative,” he explained. But sometimes the desire to fit in—even if in a tree stand—is that strong.