No brand defines American workwear, if not workwear as a whole, quite like Carhartt. Since 1886, the Michigan company has perfected a Midas touch that its peers lack. Its influential creations are innumerous, from the bib overall to the use of tan duck canvas as a symbol of utilitarian usefulness. But perhaps the greatest Carhartt innovation of them all is the Carhartt Active Jacket, arguably the most timeless jacket ever designed.
Even as the Active Jacket turned 50 in 2025, it's never been more vital. But here’s the funny thing: the Carhartt Active Jacket has become perennial largely because, paradoxically, it's barely changed at all.
Carhartt has weathered trend after trend (just Google “Carhartt bro,” if you dare), and especially in the past few years, its hardy gear has permeated beyond cliquey fashion circles (following one high-profile collaboration after another) into mainstream culture, full stop. The Carhartt Active Jacket is now a certified A-lister, just check its latest cameos: A$AP Rocky zipped one up for one of Rihanna’s pregnancy announcements while Justin Bieber and Channing Tatum regularly rep the Carhartt classic in their sidewalk wardrobes. Perhaps most notably as of late, Dakota Johnson wore one in 2025’s very-much-of-its-moment rom-com Materialists, with Chris Evans’ character giving Johnson’s a well-worn iteration of the jacket to stay warm. Nothing says love right now, it seems, like a thoroughly distressed Active Jacket.
For the Active Jacket's 50th anniversary, both Carhartt and its fashion-y sub-label Carhartt WIP responded in kind to the hype with limited-edition commemorative capsules. As mainline Carhartt reissued some classic models, WIP created four reversible colorways priced at an unusually-high-for-Carhartt $398 and $1,690 for the leather version. It’s a sign of Carhartt’s sterling reputation that the salt-of-the-earth brand could release, and almost entirely sell out of, these premium Active Jackets — it’s not like you can’t easily find the OG cotton duck version for $120. But even the rarer leather iteration, with its anniversary-specific patches and embroidery, makes plenty sense as an aspirational piece for the Carhartt-indoctrinated youth on TikTok, who have shaped the new era of Active Jacket.
Though WIP, which started in 1994, successfully shifted Carhartt from the work site into the heart of streetwear, it was really just capitalizing on an extant movement that'd already long glommed onto the underlying quality and unfussy elegance of Carhartt’s output. All this even while the design of the Active Jacket, one of Carhartt’s signature items alongside the Detroit work jacket, remained unchanged since it debuted in 1975.
The Active Jacket's cropped-length cut, hitting right at the waist, was a prescient move both flattering and remarkably of the now, with the loose fit giving the Active Jacket a workwear cardigan vibe. Repeated wears, rips, marks, and dirt only make it a more lovable everyday uniform, and you can easily snatch a barely-worn one up on the secondhand market for under $100. It’s wearable for life, and the faded canvas only deepens its attractiveness. On the other hand, you can hunt down a perfectly distressed Active Jac, as its fans call it, though the choicest models command top dollar at vintage boutiques and eBay stores.
Some shops dedicate whole sections to vintage Active Jackets — the more beat-up, the better (and pricier). That’s why you’ll find stylists and shoppers carefully eyeing the exact right Active Jac for the fit of choice at elite vintage meccas like Metropolis Vintage in New York City, which has been stocking the jacket since opening in the ‘80s and currently boasts one of the largest selections of vintage Carhartt in the city and a clientele that includes Drake and, yes, Rocky.
“I honestly think, and say this to customers, the market has come to Carhartt, not the other way round,” says Andy Knight, coowner of the The Forum store in the UK, which stocks a wide array of Carhartt WIP. “Its ethos of ‘built to last’ suits today's and tomorrow's world of buying well and buying less. That's a huge reason why the brand’s number one [in workwear] pretty much globally.”
The cultural adoption of Carhartt has been underway for decades. As a skater in the ‘90s, Knight says, “we rocked Carhartt because it was so hardwearing.” It was also affordable, so when it became a go-to for rappers like Tupac, Eazy-E, and Cypress Hill, fans could actually replicate the look, as anyone who rode on a city bus in 1994 can attest.
That availability hasn’t slowed Carhartt’s ascent in more rarified air, either. Luxury titans like Valentino and Balenciaga have fashioned their own Carhartt-style workwear in recent runway collections, down to the built-in hoods and worn-in cotton canvas exteriors. Meanwhile, Japanese clothing label sacai has collaborated with Carhartt WIP three times, most recently for a 19-piece capsule collection that featured its own remixed Active Jacket. It’s like Carhartt is a politician who can really do it all, getting in with the high-fliers while also representing back-to-basics blue-collar cool.
“The beauty of Carhartt is its diverse reach,” says Courtney Mays, an Active Jacket devotee and stylist for the NBA’s Chris Paul and actor Winston Duke. “What I love most is how its logo shows up on everyone — across ages, neighborhoods, industries, and identities. There is nothing exclusionary about it.”
The Active Jacket, specifically, speaks to people exactly because it “hasn’t tried to reinvent itself to fit a trend — it’s stayed true to its roots,” Mays says. “That consistency feels refreshing right now, when so much of fashion is chasing the next big thing.”
Credit naturally goes to the design “maintaining its DNA,” Knight notes. “There’s an honesty in Carhartt’s design language that resonates: durable, familiar, and instantly recognizable,” Mays adds. “That mix of authenticity and everyday wearability is exactly what makes it timeless. It doesn’t ask you to perform or posture — it just fits into your life.”
The unshakeable design will always be core to the Active Jac’s appeal, of course, but a heap of credit also goes to the brand’s business savvy. Knight points to Carhartt’s cautious caretaking — for example, not overdistributing its most coveted product — which can quickly kill any whiff of cool. Stiff duck Active Jacs straight from the factory continue to line the walls of sports goods stores, but rare releases like the 50th anniversary WIP are just that: truly rare, meted out thoughtfully in small, exclusive runs. And the definitive vintage Active Jac — the perfectly thrashed one that Daktota Johnson wore in Materialists, for instance — is as elusive as garments come. All of these factors give Carhartt an unstoppable cultural force that younger and even higher-end brands could only dream of.
“I think WIP have this art sewn up,” Knight says. “I'm sure they get big checks waved at them all the time, but they know that being represented well in the industry will give them longevity in the market. There's a science to selling it and they have nailed it.”
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