It’s not just for dads anymore. The humble quarter-zip pullover offers warmth and versatility, while leaving space underneath for a button-down shirt, say, a Brooks Brothers or J. Press. A familiar sight every Thanksgiving, the garment combines fashion and function, serving as a kind of business-friendly sweatshirt that still somehow doesn’t look out of place in a boardroom. (Dating back to the zipper’s early 20th-century invention, one could argue it was something like the older brother, or uncle, of the finance-bro vest.)
But a funny thing has happened in the “low-hire, low-fire” labor market of 2025, the year “affordability” became the dominant socioeconomic theme and artificial intelligence morphed from job-stealing villain to economy-threatening bubble to inescapable source of anxiety. Gen Z men have taken to the quarter-zip.
Viral TikTok videos, sales data, and workplace surveys reveal how this polished-yet-casual staple has become a generational costume, doubling as armor for economic uncertainty and a tool to “fake it till you make it” in a career landscape stacked against young people. Gen Z men’s gravitation toward quarter-zip pullovers represents more than a fleeting fashion choice—it’s a subtle signal of ambition and adaptation in a job market that feels almost insurmountably tough for many young adults today.
A viral look with symbolic roots
The quarter-zip pullover has swept across social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram, and seems to be especially appealing to young Black men. A TikTok query to explain the quarter-zip phenomenon generates a full screen of videos, many of them with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of views. The channel @blackquarterzip, for instance, has over 18,000 followers. “This is not a trend, this is not a challenge, this is a movement,” says a video with over 9,000 views.
In these videos, Gen Z men, especially young Black men, document style “upgrades” from athleisure and streetwear to quarter-zips as part of what they describe as a “life upgrade.” TikTok creator Charlie Boy (@charlie.dior1, with 1.7 million followers) told the Daily Dot that for many, “the quarter-zip sweater isn’t a trend to me … It fits my day-to-day routine, works with everything, and stays practical in any season. People call it a trend because it’s viral right now, but for many of us it’s a lifestyle.”
Culture critics and fashion writers have noted that the quarter-zip’s popularity stems from a yearning for stability and maturity. A recurring sentiment across social platforms and Reddit threads is that quarter-zips are a co-optation of boring, dad fashion, seemingly a joke that has taken on a life of its own. As pmcwhite2 explained in November on the thread r/mensfashion, it seemed to begin as the antithesis to wearing Nike Tech sweat suits, “but now there’s a shift towards dressing for success, eating right, and connecting with others regarding elevating and achieving more in life … It has caught on amongst youth culture. Really cool to see the youth taking a liking to the idea of wanting to look their best and do other things.” (This prompts the question of whether the quarter-zip began as a sort of “brain rot,” a meaningless internet joke that took on a life of its own, like the mysterious “Six-Seven” slang, then became a symbol of self improvement.)
Gen Z faces daunting hurdles in the workforce. In the United States, Gen Z male jobless rates hovered around 9.1% in the second quarter of 2025, significantly higher than the rate for young women (7.2%) and more than double the overall U.S. Unemployment rate. Entry-level job postings globally have fallen by 29% since early 2024, while every new opening receives nearly twice as many applications as a year earlier. “Gen Z is facing the worst of the numbers game,” explained Jon Stross, cofounder of hiring platform Greenhouse, in an interview with the Society for Human Resource Management and its Tomorrowist team.
The rise of the quarter-zip, seemingly a rejection of Nike Tech, also reflects wider macroeconomic realities. The branded sportswear retails for well over $100, while a navy blue quarter-zip can be purchased on Amazon for under $25. The popular accessory that goes with the quarter-zip also speaks to macroeconomic pressures. As a popular TikTok video with over 300,000 views stated recently, “We don’t do Nike Tech, we don’t do coffee, it’s straight quarter-zips and matchas around here.” The price of coffee has surged 41% through September 2025, year over year, although a brewing matcha shortage may disrupt Gen Z’s aspirational new office costume.
