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When Ivy style came to Japan and put teenagers in collared shirts and khakis and madras and cable knit sweaters, it kicked open the door for American fashion. But what came right on the heels of Ivy League style as the 60s turned into the 70s was a style called heavy duty. Think like hiking boots and flannel and down vests. Some in Japan called it the outdoor version of Ivy. Heavy duty style is the mix of outdoor and ivy. This is Shigeru Kaneko. My name is Kaneko Shigeru. And with Shigeru acting as translator is Yoichiro. Yoichiro Nakamura. I'm from Beams New York office. Both men work for Beams, a legendary lifestyle clothing retailer with over 100 stores in Japan. And Beams is a perfect example of a Japanese store that started in 1976 doing American collegiate style and merged seamlessly into outdoorsy heavy duty. Beams started from student lifestyle and I believe outdoor is already a part of students lifestyle. Shigeru is a head buyer for Beams and he's been a huge fan of American outdoor companies since before he could buy these clothes in Japan. He started learning this brand Patagonia or the other outdoor brand from the magazine or catalog. And then finally the real product comes into Japanese market. I mean, Japan has mountains. What is Japanese outdoor wear like? In the modern times? We always wear American European jacket when we go climbing mountains. We just don't know how people used to wear in Japan when they are climbing mountains. He's only interested in American and European. And to Shigeru, American outdoor wear has a distinct look in comparison to European outdoor wear. Americano Auto Brandoga American jacket is very functional and it's there to protect people. But European jacket is more for stylish design. So that's the comparison between these two. Black American jacket looks ugly, but it's not necessary agri. It's very functional oriented. And part of what gave American outdoors wear its style, its gorpy, ugly, not ugly utility that Shigeru described are its deep ties to the military. This is a big reason why American outdoor clothing looks the way it does. And the outdoor industry plays a role in why American soldiers look the way they do. There's a large team behind the designs for the army. It's not just me. The factory that we were in did military contracts. We know people who work on military contracts. L.L. bean was able to bring that to the retail market from its military application. They might get issued 25% of their gear, but the other 75% they're buying off of like the commercial market. You'd have to go get civilian clothing and so you just go to rei. Holy shit. The label straight up says Patagonia. We also leveraged the DNA of both the military and the outdoors. Military where is always the first that use the latest technology. The United States outdoor industry and the United States military are interwoven. Whether you partake in either of these institutions or not, both impact what you wear. These clothes shape the way the United States sees its role in the world and the way each of us see our role in nature. I'll explore how in Gear, a seven part series on articles of interest coming October 22nd.