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.