In a difficult year that many will remember for the exceptional amount of time spent indoors, never has access to nature felt like such a luxury. And never has it served as such solace to so many. As we flocked to parks, riverbanks, and forests like never before, we reevaluated our personal connection with the great outdoors — and so, too, did fashion.

Although fashion and the outdoors have been converging for a while, last year it reached new heights and peaked with Gucci’s collaboration with The North Face. The joining of two industry mega-weights was always going to land with a bang, but it does so for a reason you might not expect. Until now, collaborations of this genre — and gorpcore as a whole — have mostly focused on utility with sensible, downplayed color palettes to match. Gucci, however, has brought playfulness, patterns, and a touch of eccentricity to an industry that is often too serious.

More importantly, the collaboration reflects the wider and long-overdue movement to make the outdoors more inclusive. Nature doesn't discriminate — it is a place where anyone should be able to express themselves freely with no fear of judgment. However, industry players ruling the roost have continuously focused on a small core audience of hardcore enthusiasts, which has made it hard for newcomers to take part. If anything can inject a much-needed boost of creativity and self-expression, it’s fashion. This may be a move frowned upon by serious outdoor enthusiasts and gorpcore followers alike, but the outdoors is for everyone (as long as it’s respected), whether you’re wearing a 3-layer GORE-TEX jacket or not.

In parallel, a new generation of enthusiasts is breaking down the stereotype of what outdoor recreation looks like and who it is for. Through it, more people are discovering the mental and physical benefits of being in nature. Among those leading the charge is Flock Together, and, in partnership with The North Face x Gucci, we linked with the birdwatching club to bring to the fore those changing the outdoors for the better.

You don’t need to hike a mountain to relate to this. Just watching the clouds drift across the sky or listening to the leaves rustle is shown to have a beneficial effect on our wellbeing. That explains why activities such as fishing, foraging, bird watching, and even the Japanese tradition of forest bathing are undergoing newfound popularity and attracting a much broader demographic than they once did. Clubs such as Flock Together are playing a major role in this by encouraging more people of color, who have always been there but not really been seen, to reclaim the outdoors.

“Growing up, we never saw ourselves represented in these spaces; [in] the media it was only ‘old, white, and male’,” says Ollie Olanipekun who co-founded Flock Together with Nadeem Perera last summer. “This told us that the outdoors was not a place for us. At the same time, brands who operate in this space created products based on the people they saw using this space, which in turn left us more locked out.”

The outdoor industry largely existed in its own isolated bubble for years, as brands and media continued to serve the same core audience and promulgate the trope of the white outdoor enthusiast. There have been initiatives set up to tackle this, such as The North Face’s Explore Fund, which has funded hundreds of organizations in the last decade to help break down barriers so everyone can get outside, but there needs to be more drastic action to bring about industry-wide change. The recent case of Christian Cooper — a Harvard-educated science writer and birder who, while birding in Central Park, was threatened by a white woman after politely asking her to put her dog on a leash — highlights the stigma and racism that still exists in outdoor recreation.

Flock Together was founded to change that. Olanipekun and Perera met online last summer when Perera commented on a video Olanipekun posted of a bird he’d spotted at his local pond. Surprised to find Perera wasn’t the stereotypical white, middle-aged birder, they bonded over their mutual passion and decided to start Flock Together, which they define as “a bird watching support club challenging the underrepresentation of Black, Brown, and other POC in nature.” In June last year, as London’s lockdown eased, they took their first walk and have since built up a dedicated group of fellow birders (most of whom were first-timers) and a fast-growing online following.

For Flock Together, to just be in the countryside while birdwatching is radical in itself, and by being there, they are rectifying the visual misrepresentation that has long choked the industry. “We need more representation across all activities in the outdoors and we need new gatekeepers who can bring in more creativity. All of this together will make nature more exciting and appealing to the next generation,” says Perera.

Nature is a space to heal, and the fact that Flock Together’s founding coincided with the Black Lives Matter movement and the Western world's awakening to the ongoing racial injustices faced by BIPOC is no coincidence. “Following the seemingly endless murders of Black people in the US, the feeling of collective trauma reached unbearable levels,” shares Olanipekun. “On top of that, we were also expected to educate white people about racism, and most of the time we were met with dismissal. It was, and still is, exhausting. Nature doesn’t require anything from you; no need to pretend to be something you’re not just to survive, no effort required whatsoever.”

Olanipekun and Perera are London-based, but the Flock Together movement is taking flight worldwide, with branches extending as far as Tokyo, Toronto, and Amsterdam. This is a step towards their long-term dream of becoming an “established global institution with chapters in every city in the world.” It's a very achievable goal. People are craving the peace of mind and spirit that a deeper connection with nature brings to counteract the abundance of time spent indoors and, out of pandemic times, the hectic pace of urban life. Unlike skiing, fishing, kayaking, or most other outdoor activities, you don’t need a ton of gear to go birding. As Collin’s birdwatching guide puts it: “The full recipe for successful bird identification is patience, quietness, a reasonably sharp eye and ear, and a good bird book.” It continues: “An invaluable asset, however, is a knowledgeable friend to set your footsteps on the right path.”

For so many, Flock Together will be that valuable friend. But if you’re keen to start birding and aren’t in a city where they’re present, Perera has a word of advice that is most likely not just about spotting birds: “Just look up a little more. When you go about daily life, look up to the sky, or even the tops of trees. Just keep looking up.”

Learn more and read the original piece here.