Ciel(e) Dégagé
I see someone in a Ciele hat every single time I leave my house. Why?
When I walk around Montreal, I like to analyze the outfits of passerby. I’m genuinely interested in what people are actually wearing. Any media outlet or platform will tell you that SB Dunks are red hot, but how many people are actually wearing them out of the house? That’s what I’m interested in knowing. When I see a hot girl1 wearing a sweater vest that she definitely got at Editorial, I nod like I’m observing a textbook chess opening. When I see something that surprises me, I make a mental note. Over the past month, I noticed something over and over and over: The Ciele GOcap. I see some combination of the bright, geometric 6-panel hat every single time I leave my house.
As a good little consumer of fashion media, this struck me as odd. I couldn’t recall any Twitter tastemaker or publication like GQ endorsing these hats. It’s a phenomenon completely outside the hype cycle. Could it be that… people genuinely, organically like Ciele?
Founded in Montreal in 2014, Ciele was born to address the lack of running hats that co-founder Jeremy Bresnen “wanted to wear”. The bright, geometric design is fun, energetic, and instantly recognizable. The front panels are SPF 40. The fabric wicks sweat. You can fold it up and put it in your pocket without damaging it. It’s even machine-washable, so you can whip your gross, sweaty hat directly into your hamper after your run. The commitment to technical excellence is clear. This commitment is shared by fellow Canadian brand Arc’Teryx. The difference is that since Ciele makes hats, the price point doesn’t explode the way it does with Arc. The Ciele GOcap, the only product that Ciele carried at launch in 2014, and the product that, as of 2020, consisted of a dominating 70% of their sales, ranges from $40-$50 CAD. The Arc’Teryx Squamish jacket, a windbreaker that “packs up in its own pocket and weighs almost nothing”, is the cheapest of the classic Arc jackets and runs a cool $200 CAD. Thus it’s much easier for Ciele caps to find their way atop the heads of Montrealers all over the city.
You don’t even need to leave your home to be awash in Ciele: the brand posts on Instagram daily. Unsurprisingly, most of the posts are people running and wearing Ciele. What is surprising is that not everyone featured is a pro athlete or some sort of fitness influencer. A lot of the people featured in these grid posts are just… people who run. To participate in the sport is to be cool enough. Also featured on the ‘gram are short stories or essays on running, as well as posts highlighting philanthropic projects Ciele is affiliated with. Notably, a recent post details a run across Haiti to raise funds for a non-profit focused on job assistance in the nation.
Ciele is an inclusive brand that makes a fun, affordable, and high-quality product that people genuinely like. That’s it. Ciele’s domination is democratic, which is fitting for a brand whose slogan is “everybody run”.
I think my confusion says more about me than Ciele. I was expecting a huge marketing push, endorsements, deals, paparazzi pics2. I was looking for something manufactured; deep down I was expecting it, as embarrassing as it may be to say. I wasn’t expecting the popularity to be genuine, to be crowd-sourced.
I’m happy to be wrong. It gives me hope.
“hot girl” is used as a genre of person.
If like, Hailey Bieber gets papparzzi’d wearing a Ciele hat tomorrow I am going to throw my laptop into the Lachine.