Without Arc'teryx x BEAMS, gorpcore may never have existed. It seems a stretch, but alongside The North Face x Supreme, this long-running collaboration has been instrumental in blurring the line between fashion and functional outdoor gear.
The Canadian mountain specialist and Japanese retailer have been working together for 25 years now, long before Gore-Tex shells and approach shoes became acceptable attire for supping pints of Guinness outside a Peckham boozer.
To mark the occasion – which also happens to coincide with BEAMS’ 50th anniversary – the pair are back with a six-piece collection called ‘KOYO’. The name means autumn leaves in Japanese, and that’s very much the colour palette: burnt orange, yellow, brown, black and flashes of gold, applied with the bold colour-blocking that has become a calling card of Arc’teryx x BEAMS collaborations.
Back from the dead
The headline piece is the Theta AR Jacket. Outerwear nerds will be well aware that the Theta, originally introduced in 1998, has been discontinued for years, and Arc’teryx generally prefers developing new products to digging around in its archives. For BEAMS, however, it has made an exception.
The KOYO version takes its cues from the earliest Theta AR, bringing back details including the centre storm flap, covered pocket zips and chunky old-school zip pulls. The longer body and high-mounted pockets are there too, giving it a distinctly late-1990s silhouette. Underneath all that retro styling, though, things are more modern, with the shell now constructed using Gore-Tex Pro ePE.
It’s a fitting choice. The Theta AR featured in Arc’teryx and BEAMS’ first collaborative collection in 2001, making its return a neat way of bringing the partnership full circle.
More than a jacket
The rest of the collection follows the same autumnal theme. There’s a BEAMS-orange Gamma Jacket – the retailer’s first special-order version of the Arc’teryx softshell – alongside newly developed Jogen cargo trousers based on a longstanding BEAMS silhouette.
Accessories come in the form of a Konseal 15 Backpack, made using tough 315-denier Hadron fabric, and a black Gamma 5 Panel Cap with gold branding. Rounding things out is the heavyweight Kragg Cotton LS Shirt, which features graphics of six previous anniversary products from the partnership printed across the back. It’s essentially a wearable cheat sheet to 25 years of Arc’teryx x BEAMS.
And if the colour scheme looks considerably less restrained than the average Arc’teryx shell, that’s because it is. KOYO combines Arc’teryx’s Blaze and 24K shades with BEAMS orange and deeper autumnal tones, using the Japanese retailer’s familiar ‘crazy pattern’ approach to colour blocking across the range.
The Arc’teryx x BEAMS Anniversary Collection launches globally on 25 September 2026. In Japan it will be available through BEAMS Harajuku, while selected Arc’teryx brand stores in the UK, US, Canada and China will also carry the collection.
