It’s hiking just without the extremes. It’s birdwatching in a city park. It’s being a naturalist, even if only for an hour. Ollie Olanipekun of New Nature takes us through the many ways a new generation of outdoorsy people are getting outside. Statistics pulled from our new White Paper - which you can read here.
Ollie Olanipekun wants you to rethink what it means to be a “nature person.” The multi-disciplinary creative who doubles as a founder and triples as an adept birdwatcher recently launched his latest initiative New Nature: an open invitation (a bird call, if you will) to a refreshed way of thinking about what it means to be outdoorsy. “Everyone’s connection to nature is different, and that’s the beauty of it,” Olanipekun says. “No rights, no wrongs. It’s the idea that nature is open to interpretation, and however you perceive, explore, or connect to it is valid, meaningful, and important.”
The 39-year-old is no novice when it comes to connecting people to the great outdoors. In 2020, during a notoriously indoorsy year, he launched the birdwatching collective Flock Together, a tight-knit community for POC individuals to indulge in the endless joys that nature has to offer. After witnessing its rapid success, and the growing popularity of outdoor groups in general, Olanipekun became curious about what he saw as a new wave of nature enthusiasts: What compelled them to spend their time outside? Why hadn’t they spent time outside before?
He found that a lot had to do with the defining ethos of outdoorsmanship, which had been established long, long ago by the white leisure class who had the means, the access, and the time. They were the ones creating the clubs, buying the land, designing the clothes, and honing the skills. Along with these clubs and clothes came a certain story about being outdoorsy: It meant risk-taking, strength, and a high level of commitment. All of this combined to alienate many would-be avid nature enthusiasts, who assumed that a relationship with nature was just not meant for them.
But, asked Olanipekun, what if being outdoors means taking a hike in the city? What if your reason for going outside wasn’t to achieve anything other than feeling good? What if a relationship with the outdoors was understood to be totally individual?
Enter New Nature.
“New Nature is about speaking to these new audiences in new ways,” Olanipekun explains. To achieve this, New Nature draws from the streetwear scene and its legacy of nonconformity, community, and forums without hierarchy. Building on Flock Together, New Nature aims to rewrite the dominant narrative that enjoying nature is only for a certain kind of person, with a certain amount of free time and motivation. Because it’s these ideas that keep so many of us from experiencing the great outdoors.
Nature, according to Highsnobiety’s cultural pioneers
The explosion in luxury outdoor fashion-wear is undeniable. That’s why we partnered with ISPO, the world’s leading sports and outdoor trade fair, to launch 520M (a nod to the highest point in Munich): a platform for brands to navigate the intersection of performance, fashion, and culture within the outdoor industry. And one of the first things we did was to survey 400 Gen Z and millennial cultural pioneers — like you, our readers — across the globe, and conduct interviews with industry leaders, to get to the heart of the players, consumers, and innovators shaping what we’re calling the New Outdoors.
We learned that, compared to previous generations, you’re going outside for totally different reasons. The thrill of scaling the highest mountain or carving the steepest descent isn’t it — not even the associated bragging rights. Instead, you’re venturing into the great outdoors to improve your overall well-being. Creativity, companionship, and physical and mental wellness are what motivate this new cohort of naturalists across the globe.
9%: “I go outside for high-performance activities.”
67%: “I would like to learn more about offbeat outdoor activities.”
64%: “I’m constantly looking for new inspiration and activities for exploring the outdoors.”
68%: “Going outdoors is an important part of my creativity.”
And with good reason. In his book Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness, Dr. Qing Li, the world’s foremost expert in forest medicine, reflects on the power nature has on our mental health: “Involuntary attention requires no mental effort, it just comes naturally. This is the kind of attention we use when we are in nature. The soothing sights and sounds give our mental resources a break. They allow our minds to wander and to reflect, and so restore our capacity to think more clearly.”
Given the economic, geopolitical, and societal turbulence Gen Z has already been party to, it tracks that they’ve intuited the link between mental and physical health, and all that being in nature has to offer in respect to both.
Diverse activities like hiking, road cycling, water sports, and snow sports are still in popular rotation, but we learned from our survey that you’re rarely doing any of these to the extreme. It’s all about getting in touch with the ground beneath your feet and the sky above your head. À la TikTok’s “soft hiking”: It’s all ambling, observing, feeling, and reflecting.
65%: “I’ve noticed niche elements of the outdoors (e.g., birdwatching, fishing, etc.) impacting fashion and style.”
Not surprisingly, this stance has also led to an uptick in some of the more offbeat outdoor activities like foraging and birdwatching. More than two-thirds of Highsnobiety readers told us they’d like to learn more about these activities and discover new ways of exploring the outdoors.
When it comes to the gear, you value aesthetics as much as functionality, of course. Our survey showed that 72 percent of respondents look for practicality and comfort in their outdoor gear, and 67 percent appreciate the innovation and technology that goes into its make.
77%: “The outdoor products I buy need to look and feel just as good on the walk to work, as they do on the terrain.”
80%: “I’m interested in traditional outdoor brands that take unexpected creative chances or collaborate in unexpected ways.”
79%: “The outdoor brands I buy place as much importance on style as performance.”
71%: “I prefer buying outdoor brands that have a deep history, heritage, and authenticity in the outdoors.”
63%: “I’m excited by new players entering the outdoors.”
Maybe most importantly, we know that you know there’s a lot more to nature than the national parks. The outdoors is a city greenbelt and a bouldering wall. It’s trainspotting, mushroom foraging, plein-air painting, front yards, and so much more.
