By: XEONIQ [ Instagram | Tumblr ]
Introduction
Taiwan is a small island that I’ve been lucky enough to spend significant time on over the years. Taiwan has some beautiful natural environments, amazing food and a hard working and friendly culture of people, and I feel like it’s underrated as a tourist destination with it being known more as a manufacturing hub. Yet beyond their dominance in the semi-conductor industry, Taiwan has produced several noteworthy brands in the techwear market as well that I’d like to list and discuss briefly in this article for an international audience.
While I only own, or have owned, a handful of pieces from a few of the brands in this list, the brands listed here are not endorsed by me and I don’t have personal experience with all of them. This list is for informational purposes to start your own search and potentially purchase a few products from some of these brands if any personally call to you.
I’ve always felt that Taiwanese brands have been underrated in the techwear scene, many dismissing them for being of a lower price point, or sometimes having derivative designs. However, design is not just a pattern or set of details, it includes the material choice for a given piece, the colours, the placements of features, and many other variables that can make a piece excellent or a let down. Even the most expensive brands have put out very poor products and some of the most budget manufacturers sometimes put out a rare design of excellent value or quality. I’ve only included brands here that I feel are providing some sort of unique value proposition for consumers in the technical fashion market.
One common theme that most of the brands in this list all share is their use of collaborations, often with other Taiwanese labels in this list but sometimes also with foreign companies. It’s something I haven’t seen as often or frequently from techwear brands from other countries. Another theme you’ll find when browsing these collections of these brands is a propensity towards looser fits, in their pants and tops especially. Finally, most of the brands also feature a comprehensive range of accessories to go with their garments at a breadth that isn’t especially common in techwear labels outside Taiwan.
If you are looking for looser fits, creative remixes and applications of military design references, at a competitive price point in this technical fashion genre, I think that Taiwanese brands should definitely be considered.
4Dimension
4Dimension was one of the first brands that really got me interested in futuristic and technical fashion. Their long defunct Tumblr page [LINK] is still accessible and has great futurist products and imagery. The photography for the brand’s early collections was amazing, even by today’s standards, and these aesthetics were what personally inspired me in the beginning to look at brands beyond Nike who were creating clothing that was inspired by science fiction, if not their own vision of the future.
Founded in Taipei in 2013 by Feng Chen and Kevin Lim, the brand started as a very futuristic technical sportswear and fashion brand and over the years changed their aesthetic for a casual, streetwear market.
4Dimension enjoyed some international popularity with their shoulder bags a few years ago which featured X-PAC, webbing and other tactical features. In 2021, they returned with a strong technical fashion collection, but their current offerings are focused on tees and hoodies.
Despite this, you can still find a lot of older stock that feature technical designs on their e-commerce site, much of it on sale. While 4Dimension does not have a consistent aesthetic any longer, there are a lot of interesting pieces they’ve made over the years and they are worth checking out and supporting for their approach to bags and their creative use of paneling on their garments.
Web Store Link: https://www.4dimensionapparel.com/
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/4dimension_official/
GOOPiMADE
Goopi is one of the brands that, in my opinion, popularised a oversized, baggy fit in techwear outside of Taiwan. While they are a bit newer and started in 2016, but they have enjoyed more international success than the other brands on this list and have foreign stockists such as End and HAVN.
Goopi have done collaborative productions with 4Dimension and oqLiq in the past, and many more with foreign brands including Casio G-Shock. Goopi runs a web store that sells many Taiwanese streetwear and techwear brands, but they only release a very limited number of pieces of their own brand GOOPiMADE so to find stock it is better to check other retailers such as Undergarden.
Goopi’s webstore has a great assortment of Taiwanese brands, techwear or not, that can be interesting to look through if you are tired of the same derivative designs that have been the staple of techwear brands in the West and want some aesthetic inspiration.
Web Store Link (3rd party retailer): undergarden.co/categories/goopimade
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/goopi.co/
Guerrilla Group
Founded in 2013, Guerrilla Group was originally made up of two sub-brands: Eyes & Sins and Silent Whisper. Eyes & Sins created that collections that most people would associate with the brand and today the company appears to have let go of that demarcation and is simply: Guerilla Group. Guerrilla Group enjoyed popularity early on especially for their loose fit but extremely tapered cargo pants and their long line tank tops used as a layering piece.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Guerrilla Group is their creative approach to different releases borrowing from a number of references including science fiction, space, Japanese car culture, post-apocalyptic survival and many others integrating those references not just into their designs but into their marketing. I’d put the brand more as a futuristic-inspired streetwear label than performance techwear, but there certainly have been pieces they’d made over the years, which integrate performance and that provide extra utility to their wearers in a trendy, casual fashion garment.
I’ve owned a few earlier pieces from Guerrilla Group and while I felt most were too much on the streetwear side of quality and design for my taste, I did hang on to my ATC Quickdraw Holster from 2016. The bag is a technical/futurist interpretation of a Dries van Noten Spring Summer 2015 runway accessory, and I’ve gotten a good six years of use out of mine. It’s design provided me with extra utility for carry when I wear a backpack to keep items out of my pants pockets and within easy reach and it was differentiated enough from its original reference garment that I think it provided value to those like me who appreciated those extra features.
Guerrilla Group and SEALSON recently released a collaboration project of one of SEALSON’s signature backpacks with a treatment by Guerrilla Group and a matching vest that can be worn separately or integrated into the bag; that I found very cool for futuristic, technical looks. The recent collection is very dark and techno-organic, providing a bit of differentiation to the largely geometrically-inspired designs released by other brands in this sphere.
Web Store: https://www.guerrilla-group.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guerrillagroup_co/
HYST. Shop
HYST. is not a clothing brand but a rather influential Taiwanese retail store that stocks most of the brands in this list. Their selection, styling on models for their Instagram account and editorials are worth checking out for inspiration.
Some of the Taiwanese brands they carry, like Plateau Studio are not on this list because they are predominantly casual fashion labels, but they do have the odd technical garment which might be of interest to some people.
Items go on sale somewhat regularly and its worth checking if HYST. has anything you’re interested in before buying directly on a brand’s e-store.
Web Store Link: https://www.hyst-shop.com/
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/hyst_shop/
oqLiq
This brand is not the most unique or creative in their designs; at a cursory glance of their web store I can identify designs that were first brought out by 4Dimension and Alk Phenix, they do offer value in how extensive their product range is. Their price point is comparable to other Taiwanese technical brands and performance fabrics and features are applied consistently across almost the entire product range.
oqLiq’s current S/S ’22 has a very strong summer techwear offering and I could see a lot of these pieces working for complete looks or to mix with other brands. Their pattern is adventurist if not futuristic in many of the pieces and I think that’s a good way for lightweight layering pieces to look less basic for warmer weather.
While their accessories are a bit over-branded for my taste the majority of garments are unbranded, have interesting patterning and use both big silhouettes and on-trend, urban colourways for differentiation.
Web Store Link: https://www.till.com.tw/
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/oqliq/
PROTOTYP
An emerging brand, to my knowledge currently only being sold on HYST Shop, their first collection carried a circuit racing motorsport theme; something that Guerrilla-Group also explored a few years ago in one of their own collections.
While most techwear brands have borrowed heavily from military references to bring at least an aesthetic if not the performance of those designs to their garments, PROTOTYP’s use of motorsports is refreshing. Many younger men into technical fashion also seem to have parallel interests in performance cars, so I think that the direction PROTOTYP has invested in is a good one, and I’d love to see how that may develop over time. There’s been numerous films and authentic motorsports communities over the last few decades that have provided fashion aesthetics that could be inspiration for technical motorsports fashion, and those in modern performance car communities could even be a market for PROTOTYP’s designs.
PROTOTYP, like several of the Taiwanese brands on this list has a number of unique headwear products that are refreshing to see in this space.
Web Store Link (3rd party retailer): https://www.hyst-shop.com/categories/prototyp
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/prototyp_formula/
SEALSON
SEALSON was founded in 2018 by Yun-zhe Tsai [Instagram] and unlike the other brands in this list is focused on bags and accessories rather than garments. From a technical fashion perspective, one thing that I like about this brand is that SEALSON is urban-focused, this is not an outdoor-themed brand like And Wander which merely has products that could work in urban contexts. While many of the products are over-branded for my personal tastes, there is a good use of texture that I think many technical brands miss out on. Nylon face-fabric GORE-TEX and flat polyesters like we see from Uniqlo are quite boring as textures in my opinion and there are many synthetics out there that have wonderfully futuristic aesthetics.
Tsai also maintains an awareness of sustainability via low volume production and the use of a new textile from Taiwanese manufacturer Libolon called ECOYA, which is a DWR-coated ripstop nylon that reduces CO2 emissions as well as water and chemical waste in its manufacture compared to alternative textiles. While many of the brands in this list produce small volume batches (which are superior to large volume inventories from multinational brands and larger techwear companies), having a sustainability-friendly technical material like ECOYA available as an alternative to the ballistic nylon and Dyneema that SEALSON also uses, is a good move. I’ve always enjoyed that Taiwanese brands like SEALSON (and 4Dimension and Guerrilla Group) have utilised performance fabrics made in Taiwan as an alternative to big conglomerate offerings from brands like GORE. There is a lot more value in diversity for consumers than in conformity.
Another thing that I appreciate about SEALSON is the considerable depth of information on their web store. Rather than just a collection of product listings or lookbook shots, SEALSON really provides a multimedia experience to give depth to the brand. Even if you aren’t interested in buying anything from one of these brands in the list, SEALSON’s website is very cool to just browse for its aesthetic and information. As a consumer I think this kind of tertiary information provides more depth and brand narrative compared to just a handful of products on a shopify store. I think a lot of emergent brands could learn from SEALSON in how online sites can be effectively used to increase audience engagement.
Web Store Link: https://www.sealson.co/
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/sealson_official/
WISDOM
WISDOM was founded in 2009 making it the oldest brand on this list. It’s older collections were more workwear or “modern gentleman” themed with lots of prints and colours; and the brand has now completely transitioned to urban technical/military streetwear. I’ve no personal experience with the brand but the current collection appears very cohesive and there’s a lot of interesting takes and modern remixes of military designs in loose, boxy cuts.
The colourways on offer are very well-coordinated in my opinion and would work with a lot of modern technical fashion and gorpcore outdoors fashion looks. The different shades of grey used in their various pieces are ideal for urban coordination without resorting to all black.
Like oqLiq, they are putting out a lot of loose-fit shorts, noragis and tops that would work well for summer techwear in their current release.
Web Store Link (3rd party retailer): https://www.whiterock2008.com.tw/collections/wisdom
Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/wisdom_official/
Fair Use Statement: This article contains images hosted without express permission from their copyright holders. These images are provided for illustration purposes to support an informational objective. This should constitute fair use of any such copyrighted material.
Ethical Statement: This article was written without participation with or endorsement by any of the brands or retailers featured in the list.
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