Skinny Jeans, F1, and Grandmas
Gen Z has a type.
The Anatomy of the Average Teen Boy
When men’s fashion grabs attention, it’s usually for pushing boundaries, think bold tailoring, gender-fluid silhouettes, and runway moments that challenge the norm.
Teen boys? They’re doing the opposite. They’re holding tight, to skinny jeans.
While wider cuts, cargos, jorts, and vintage-inspired styles dominate the broader fashion conversation, teen boys cling to skinny jeans like a security blanket. Whether saggy or pulled high, these jeans fit one way: tight.
Skinny jeans are the high school boy’s counterpart to a girl’s Aritzia set or Lululemon leggings, low-effort, low-risk, and passably flattering. It’s a visual shorthand signaling belonging and conformity. Their lean legs haven’t yet embraced the freedom of wide-leg pants, but that’s also part of a bigger story. This style choice reflects a generation balancing personal identity with the comfort of collective belonging, a key insight for brands navigating Gen Z’s nuanced expression of self.
Skinny jeans aren’t just a fashion statement. They’re a behavior marker, a cultural cue, and a window into how teen boys negotiate individuality and group identity.
They Came for the Aesthetic. They Stayed for the Community.
Gen Z is gravitating toward sports that come with a dress code and a vibe. Tennis, F1, and golf have become niche subcultures for teens and twenty-somethings. Another world. Each sport is aesthetic-first, fashion-adjacent, and deeply aspirational.
Golf TikToks are going viral. F1 is pulling in millions of new fans thanks to It-girls like Alexandra Saint Mleux. Even golf is having a moment.
Turns out, luxury sports have the ability to impress the hardest-to-impress generation.
The reason? Belonging. These sports hit on key Gen Z themes: dressing like the people they want to be in community with, easily reading the social cues without needing a crash course, attending planned outings that aren’t centered entirely around drinking, and meeting new people—minus the awkwardness of Bumble Friends.
When we asked our Youthtellers (ages 15–27) about loneliness, 91% said they feel isolated, even when they have friends. That’s where these niche, luxury sports come in. There’s an entire ecosystem of rituals, references, and unspoken rules: the outfits, the cocktails, the obscure history behind the gear. While you were in meetings talking at length about building third spaces, they were already trackside.
Aging Is In: How Gen Z Made Grandma Culture Cool
For Gen Z, everything that once screamed “old” is now… aspirational. They’re embracing quiet hobbies, slower living, and all things grandma-coded. In fact, 85% of our Youthtellers (ages 15–27) told us that “grandma” hobbies are officially cool.
The rise of grandma-fication isn’t just about crafting or tea sets. It’s a signal that aging is something to lean into. Basically, Gen Z is totally okay with getting older.
Retirement House is basically the Hype House for 80-year-olds, and millions are hooked. Grandma Droniak, 95 years old and sitting on 14.9 million followers, hands out dating advice, funeral rules, life lessons, and a surprisingly honest look at retirement homes. Queen Sheila is a content creator who hops on trends with her daughter and shows off her life the same way any other content creator would. Except she’s in her 60s–and who cares? Certainly not the internet, given the viral love she is getting.
When brands have tapped into this shift, it’s worked freakishly well. Remember the wave of older employees explaining products in Gen Z slang? The internet ate it up.
Now, imagine brands leaning fully into grandma culture, embracing it as more than just a gimmick. Because if there’s one thing that consistently captivates Gen Z, it’s someone way older doing it better than they ever could.
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