Gramicci Mens Clothing & Accessories

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Gramicci has made climbing clothing since 1982, when Mike Graham cut a diamond-shaped gusset into a pair of trousers so he could high-step on granite without the seam stopping him. That gusset and the one-handed

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About Gramicci

Gramicci was started in 1982 by Mike Graham, a Californian climber who had spent the seventies in Yosemite with the Stonemasters, the group that stripped climbing back to speed and free ascents. The clothing came out of a practical problem: army surplus and painter's trousers were what everyone climbed in, and they stopped you high-stepping. Graham cut a diamond-shaped gusset into the crotch, an idea taken from martial arts trousers, and added a nylon webbing belt with a backpack buckle that could be pulled tight with one hand while hanging off a wall. Shorts came first, trousers followed. The name is a joke that stuck — Graham had given himself a mock-Italian nickname when a few of the Stonemasters staged an "all-Italian" ascent of Half Dome, none of them being Italian.

The Gramicci gusset and webbing belt

Both are still on most of the range, and both are the reason the clothes get worn well away from a crag. The gusset stops the seam pulling when you lift a leg past waist height, so a pair of G-Pants will get you over a stile or into a car boot without riding up at the ankle. The webbing belt removes the need for a separate one and takes up slack a waistband would otherwise need a size change to handle, which is worth knowing if you sit between waist sizes. It also means a pair packs flat, with no buckle to dig into whatever is underneath it in the bag.

Gramicci from California to Japan

Gramicci found a second audience in Japan through the nineties and the relationship eventually reversed. Itochu held the Japanese licence from 2009 and bought the brand outright in 2017, so what began in California is now designed in Tokyo. The NN-Pant came out of that — New Narrow, drawn up in 2005 as a slimmer, lower-rise reading of the G-Pant for people wearing it in cities rather than on rock. The Japanese side also brought the collaborations, of which the long-running one with And Wander is the most established. The Running Man logo and the gusset underneath it have not changed.

Shop the full range of Gramicci pants and trousers, look through reduced Gramicci for previous seasons, or see the Gramicci and And Wander collaboration.

Gramicci FAQs

The climbing trousers and shorts it started with in 1982, and the two features that define them: a diamond-shaped gusset in the crotch that allows a full stride, and an integrated nylon webbing belt that adjusts with one hand. Almost everything the brand makes now carries one or both, including the shirts, sweats and bags.
It came from climbing, where a conventional buckle sits under a harness and digs in. The nylon webbing belt is threaded through the waistband and cinched with one hand, so it can be adjusted mid-route. In everyday use it means the waist gives a little either way, and there is nothing rigid to press against a rucksack hip belt.
Both, in sequence. It was founded in California in 1982 and became popular in Japan through the nineties. Itochu took the Japanese licence in 2009 and bought the brand outright in 2017, so design now sits in Tokyo while the original American patterns remain the basis of the range.
It comes from a joke. In the seventies a few of the Stonemasters staged what they billed as the first 'all-Italian' ascent of Half Dome in Yosemite, despite none of them being Italian, and gave themselves mock-Italian names for it. Mike Graham became Gramicci. When he started making clothing in 1982 the nickname went on the label.
Both Yards Store shops carry the range: 13 Old Bank Street in Manchester and 86 Pinstone Street in Sheffield. Stock varies between the two, so it is worth calling ahead if you are after a particular cut or size.