Why are Outdoor Afro’s iconic outdoor pants making a comeback — and why does this relaunch matter now?
Outdoor Afro Designs is relaunching its highly sought-after outdoor pants after years of demand from climbers, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts who praised the fit, comfort, and cultural authenticity of the original REI collaboration. The new chapter builds on years of community feedback, thoughtful design, and a mission to create outdoor gear that reflects a wider range of bodies and experiences.
More than just a product relaunch, Outdoor Afro Designs represents a broader vision for inclusive outdoor culture, sustainable brand growth, and community investment. The article explores the inspiration behind the pants, the intentional design process, and how the new venture supports the long-term mission of Outdoor Afro Org.
Have you ever made something that took on a life of its own?
I have. And it happened with a pair of pants.
When Outdoor Afro Inc. launched its collaboration with REI in 2022, I was thinking about a lot of things at once. I was thinking about fit, about color, about what it means to show up in nature in gear that actually reflects who you are and how you move. I thought about the parachute pants Michael Jackson wore in Thriller, and the Members Only jackets that were everywhere in the ’80s, and how those silhouettes carried a particular freedom, a particular swagger, that I wanted to bring into outdoor spaces. I was thinking about my dad’s ranch in Lake County, about the cousins who would pull up around the holidays and how we’d plan our outfits the way some families plan their menus, with care, color, flair, and joy.
What I was not fully prepared for was what would happen after the collaboration launched, and specifically, what would happen with the pants.
I started hearing from climbers. Then from hikers. Then from people who had bought the pants for the crag and ended up wearing them everywhere, on trail, to the gym, through airports, around town. I started getting messages and emails asking the same question, sometimes politely, sometimes with real urgency: when are the pants coming back?
That question stayed with me through the public hiatus that followed the REI collaboration that ended in 2024. Outdoor Afro Inc. stepped back from view while I figured out what the next chapter should look like and how to build it in a way that would last. A lot of that work happened quietly. But the question about the pants kept coming in.
“Monthly, sometimes more. From climbers, from longtime Outdoor Afro community members, from people who had never heard of Outdoor Afro before they tried on the pants at REI, and then went home and looked us up.”
That kind of sustained interest tells you something. It tells you the product actually worked. And it told me that when the time came to bring this chapter into view, the pants were the right place to start.
Last weekend at the Outside Days Summit and Festival, I made it official. The brand is relaunching under a new name: Outdoor Afro Designs. Same roots, new shape. Outdoor Afro Designs is the dedicated product and commerce expression of everything the Outdoor Afro brand stands for, built to carry that work forward through thoughtfully designed gear. And the pants are the hero product of this first chapter.
The Name Is New. The Work Isn’t.
Outdoor Afro Inc. has been the commercial and product arm of the Outdoor Afro vision for years. It is what helped bring the REI collaboration to life. Outdoor Afro Designs is its new name, and this relaunch is the next chapter of that same work, picking up where the hiatus left off, and naming what we are doing: designing.
Outdoor Afro Org., the not-for-profit I founded in 2009, runs alongside it: building community, developing leaders, and reconnecting Black Americans to the outdoor spaces and traditions that have always been part of our heritage. A portion of the revenue from the product side flows back to the not-for-profit as a corporate partner contribution alongside others we cherish, which means that buying a pair of pants is also an investment in an organization that has been doing this work for over fifteen years.
That structure matters more now than it ever has. Earned income alongside grants and philanthropic giving gives Outdoor Afro Org. steadier footing, less dependence on any single funding source, and more capability to plan with confidence. The organization helps Black children learn to swim, develops community leadership, organizes outdoor outings across the country, and builds the kind of community infrastructure that helps people get outside and stay outside across generations. Outdoor Afro Designs supports all of that while putting well-made, thoughtfully designed products into the world.
OutdoorAfro.com is the new home for this work. That is where you can sign up, follow along, and be first in line when pre-orders open.
What Made the Pants Different
When I set out to design the collaboration with REI, I was drawing on something I understood from years of sewing from when I was a child at the feet of my mom, who was a seamstress, long before Outdoor Afro existed. I used to make prom dresses, wedding dresses, and snowboarding pants for friends heading into the mountains. I understood that the difference between fit and fabrics that work and make clothing is the quiet work of exuding ease, confidence, and joyful expression. Altogether, these are the earnest elements that make a garment feel like it was made for you.
The pants came from that same clarity, but they also came from something more deliberate: a real process of listening.
The REI team and I did not design these pants from a blueprint drawn up in a conference room. We spent significant time with real people, people of different body shapes, different heights, different proportions, different ways of moving through the world. We watched how fabric behaved on bodies that did not look like a sample size. We paid attention to where things pulled, where they restricted, and where a seam that looked fine in a sketch created friction in real movement. We listened to the fit model’s words and noticed her ease. That process took time, and it was worth every hour of it.
Traditional outdoor pant fits have long been designed around a narrow range of bodies. The result is gear that functions adequately for some people and fights everyone else. Climbers know this acutely. When you are on a wall, and your pants are pulling across your hips or cutting into your waist or refusing to let your knee come up to where it needs to be, that is not a minor inconvenience. It affects your movement, your confidence, and your safety. The same is true on trail, on a scramble, in any situation where your body needs to move without negotiating with its own clothing.
What we built instead was a fit designed around a wide range of bodies, as the foundational design goal, built in from the first sketch. We asked: what does a pant need to do to move comfortably on a full spectrum of bodies? What needs to happen at the waistband, through the seat, along the thigh, at the knee, so that the pants follow the body rather than constraining it? How might larger bodies and very petite bodies share the same fit story? The answers shaped every pattern decision we made.
The silhouette we landed on carries that generation of work. There is room through the hip and seat without sacrificing a clean line. The waistband sits where it is supposed to sit, on an actual human body, and stays there. The inseam and rise were calibrated so that squatting, stepping high, and moving laterally all feel natural rather than forced. Multiple pockets are placed well and sized for real life. And the fabric, chosen for its stretch and recovery, does the rest. It moves when you move and returns to shape when you stop.
The styling decisions were layered on top of that foundation. I wanted a pant that referenced the generous, relaxed silhouettes of the late ’80s and early ’90s, that spirit of a parachute pant with room and personality, without sacrificing the performance a technical outdoor garment requires. The result was something that felt both current and familiar, a silhouette that people recognized as having stylish swagger while also trusting it would hold up to whatever they were doing outside.
Climbers picked up on this combination immediately. Climbers are particular about their gear in a way that cuts through any amount of marketing. They know what movement actually demands. When they adopted the pants, they were telling me that the fit passed a serious test. And when they kept wearing them, and told other climbers, and started sending links and asking where to buy them, that was the community speaking with precision: this works, and we want more of it.
That kind of response does not come from making something that looks right. It comes from making something that feels right on the full range of bodies that actually show up at the crag, on the trail, and in outdoor spaces across this country. That was the goal from the beginning. It is the standard Outdoor Afro Designs is carrying forward into this relaunch.
On the Hiatus
The years between the REI collaboration and this relaunch were building years.
Outdoor Afro Inc. went quiet publicly. That was intentional. After a collaboration of that scale, it takes time to understand what you actually built, what it revealed, and what the right next move is. I was not willing to rush that process just to stay visible. I have watched too many efforts move fast and build things that do not sustain. I wanted to build something that would be genuinely informed by what our outdoor community needs and not just a machine to push product.
The work during that period was real and sometimes challenging. I was thinking through the structure of what this commercial chapter should be, how the product line should grow, how the commerce piece connects to the nonprofit, and how to launch in a way that helps people understand the complementary ways it benefits the Outdoor Afro mission and vision. Designs are the result of that thinking and deep reflection.
“The pants are the right first product because the community has already told me so. They asked for them back. That is not something I take lightly. It is a clear calling, and I am responding.”
Why This Chapter Feels Different
I started Outdoor Afro in 2009 from a simple observation: Black people have always had deep relationships with the natural world, through farming and ranching and hunting and fishing and gathering and camping and all the traditions that weave through generations, and yet the mainstream outdoor industry had largely failed to reflect that history or serve that community.
The years since have confirmed what I already knew. The 2022 REI collaboration confirmed it further. When you make gear that fits, that moves well, that carries some joy and intention in its design, people respond. They respond because they have been waiting for a long time, and because they know the difference between something made with care and something made without it.
Outdoor Afro Designs is built on that confirmation. It is built on fifteen-plus years of community, on the design knowledge that came out of the REI collaboration, on the specific feedback from climbers, hikers, and everyday nature lovers who tried the pants and wanted more.
“I also want to say something about what it means to build a commercial venture as part of a nonprofit ecosystem. There is a long tradition of Black entrepreneurship in outdoor spaces that is not always recognized.”
The resorts at Idlewild, Michigan, the enterprises at Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, the fishing camps and family ranches and small outfitters that Black families built across the 20th century, these were expressions of resourcefulness, of community-building, of the understanding that economic independence and cultural vitality are connected. Outdoor Afro Designs is part of that tradition. It is one way that this organization builds toward its own financial continuity while offering something of genuine quality to the community it serves.
My father built his ranch in Lake County with an 8th-grade education and a belief that land and outdoor life were worth building toward. That belief runs through everything I do. The pants are a product. But they are also a vehicle for something larger: the idea that outdoor spaces belong to all of us, that our gear should reflect our full selves, and that the organizations building that future deserve sustainable footing.
What Comes Next
The announcement is made. The site is live. Now we move into the next phase: building the list of people who want to be first when pre-orders open later this summer.
If you have been one of the people asking when the pants are coming back, here is your answer and your next step. Head to OutdoorAfro.com and sign up. That list gets priority access when pre-orders open. The people who have been asking and waiting are the reason this relaunch is happening, and I want them to be the first ones in.
If you are new to Outdoor Afro Designs, welcome. Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and through the Outdoor Afro app. The coming-soon creative is up. More is on the way.
And if you are a climber who has been sending links and telling your crew about the pants for the past three years, thank you. You kept this alive. You are the reason we are here.
The story continues. The pants are coming back. I cannot wait to see where you take them in the outdoors.
Head to OutdoorAfro.com to sign up for pre-order updates.
