Inside Portal’s New World of Running, Hiking, and Biking Gear

Portal officially launched during Paris Fashion Week in summer 2024, offering a range of gear designed with movement in mind, including cycling bibs, soft-shell trousers, wind-resistant shell jackets, and split-seam shorts. The ongoing collection addresses the practical needs of people who want to run, bike, hike, backpack, and climb, both as a means of transportation and as an escape. Though products are made from light, breathable fabrics and designed to function outdoors while the wearer is in motion, Portal’s clothes mostly look like chic spins of standard items that wouldn’t feel out of place in the city, too.

Portal’s logo, as seen clearly on running shorts, lightweight tees, and cargo belts, could easily be mistaken for a leaf, tying into the brand’s holistic approach. However, when I visited its Paris showroom this past January, I was told it actually is meant to mirror a Strava heat map, mapping the routes taken by people escaping from a city to its surrounding trails. While there are brands out there whose identity and iconography are cool from an aesthetic standpoint, Portal’s is wholly cohesive, ensuring each element coexists seamlessly.

To fully immerse ourselves in the world of Portal, I reached out to the team to learn more and understand the fundamentals that shape Portal’s approach to design, its origins, and the problems it solves. The answers to my questions below, which were collaboratively written with feedback from all four members of the collective, have been further edited and condensed for clarity.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/portal-brand-interview-run-bike-hike