Young Chicagoans capitalize on ‘quarter-zip’ social media trend to support Bronzeville businesses

On Sunday, Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream in Bronzeville was not only bursting with dozens of customers, but they were all wearing the same attire: the quarter-zip sweater.

Some were bright, some were muted. Some were paired with bow ties and neckties. The patrons — mostly in their teens or early 20s — socialized and laughed as they tried samples of caramel cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake and lemon pound cake flavors.

“I feel proper when I wear a quarter-zip,” said Lake Rome, 14, of Ashburn. “I’m a Whitney Young [High School] student, so I pride myself on nothing less than excellence.”

Raymond Porter, 19, bought a cream-colored quarter-zip from Macy’s for the occasion.

“When I put it on, it kind of feels fancy, but also professional,” said Porter, who studies economics at Harold Washington College.

At one point, Mayor Brandon Johnson showed up in his own quarter-zip and led the customers on a walk to Sip & Savor coffee shop down the street, where they sipped on matcha.

They were among about 50 to 60 participants in the Chicago Quarter-Zip Link-Up. The event was created to show support for the businesses, which were broken into last month. The organizers said they were capitalizing on the social media trend of Gen Z men, embraced by all demographics but most popular among Black men, trading in their Nike Tech sportswear for the sweaters, claimed to be popular among “tech bros and suburban dads.”

Online critics have described the trend as a form of respectability politics, claiming participants are making themselves more acceptable for white, mainstream society. But the quarter-zip enthusiasts push back on that critique, saying their intention is to be fashionable, build self-confidence, foster community and show Black men doing positive things while having fun.

For the last month, TikTok has been populated with young men showing off their new wardrobes while drinking matcha, which they’ve deemed a sophisticated drink. And other quarter-zip meet-ups have popped up in Northern Virginia and Houston.

The craze has been explained as a way to signal maturity and professionalism among young men, many of whom are transitioning from college to the workforce. The trend has become a cultural moment alongside the current revival of Black Dandyism, which was highlighted during this year’s Met Gala in New York.

“This quarter-zip meet-up is bigger than just about what you're wearing,” said Corey DooleyJohnson, 28, of Austin, who helped organize the Chicago meet-up. “It’s about how you're living. It’s about community service and brotherhood. What we want to do is bring that holistic community feeling back. We want to create a positive network among young Black Americans, especially young Black Chicagoans.”

Trend ‘started as something kind of funny’

The quarter-zip craze began in early November when Jason Gyamfi, a 21-year-old Black native of Bronx, New York, posted a TikTok video that now has more than 1 million views. “I’m a quarter-zip dude now,” he said. “I don’t do that Nike Tech stuff that y’all little boys do. … I’m feeling a little performative today, I might even get a matcha.”

The trend resonated with 22-year-old Corey Phillips, who is a senior at North Central College in Naperville. The Sugar Grove resident founded a company that provides financial literacy education and entrepreneurial development.

“It started as something kind of funny,” said Phillips, one of the Chicago meet-up organizers. “But I think it’s something positive. We see a lot of trends that promote a lot of negativity, like youth doing things that aren’t productive. You haven't seen many times where the media showcases young men of color coming together.”

The meet-up’s other organizers include Ean Alphonse, Langston Harris, Justin Vincent and Kobey Lofton. They said they plan to keep meeting monthly at different businesses through an initiative they’re calling BizBlockChi.

The quarter-zip controversy

The organizers stressed that Black men who don't wear quarter-zips should not be seen as less respectable.

“I've seen some people online say, ‘You’re just culture-appropriating or you’re trying to fit into the white man’s box,’” DooleyJohnson said. “But that’s not true because Black Americans have always had a sense of style, and that has a wide variety. But I have seen some people say we’re trying to conform to white supremacy. But I don’t believe that’s true.”

Chicago Fashion Coalition President Marquan Jones said he sees the quarter-zip trend as a continuation of several fashion movements popular among Black men. He cited both the trend of civil rights leaders wearing Ivy League-style or “preppy” attire in the 1950s and 1960s and the trend of celebrities like Ye (formerly Kanye West) wearing Polo Ralph Lauren in the 2000s as examples.

“There is a long tradition of Black men taking symbols of elite spaces and re-purposing them sometimes just to be humorous, but sometimes [to express] identity and sometimes for defiance,” said Jones, 28, who grew up in Austin and studied sociology at Cornell University. “We take something that wasn’t meant for us and we make it ours and we make it even more relevant and cool.”

Jones pointed to those fashion choices — including Black men wearing suits in the 1920s and 1930s — as resistance against being judged before they have a chance to speak.

“As a Black man, I could also wear these things and I am also worthy and I also have dignity,” he explained. “It was an armor.”

Respectability politics often puts the burden on marginalized communities instead of addressing prejudices.

"I think respectability politics is only half the story," Jones said. "How you are dressed is how you are addressed, but that should never determine the dignity that you're owed. No outfit has ever protected a Black man from racism."

Jones said he personally learned that lesson when he attended college and wore a suit each day to combat the negative assumptions people made because he was Black and from Chicago.

“I took an Africana class and my professor talked about respectability politics,” he said. “I had this epiphany: Martin Luther King wore a suit and Malcolm X wore a suit and they were both assassinated. So it doesn't matter and it is not my job to make myself more palatable.”

Christina Steed, an adjunct professor in DePaul University’s College of Communication, said she views the quarter-zip trend as more of “remixing" than conforming.

“Fashion, especially for Black men, has always carried meaning beyond the surface,” said Steed, who specializes, in part, in multicultural marketing.

“It's a conversation with society about who they are and how they want to be seen. And what we know is how we present ourselves and how we show up in the world becomes part of how we navigate safety, success and identity in a country that just can't stop looking at us.”