Or maybe designers have finally caught up on Mad Men and learned that the folks slinging Marlboros were brilliant salesmen. Maybe the world of streetwear has run out of logos to recontextualize. Marlboro’s logo-or more specifically, haute-streetwear flips and reworks of it-is everywhere. But what was once promo gear for a cigarette company has now become a wildly popular reference point for streetwear brands.
Pieces like a vaguely Patagonia-ish fleece pullover look surprisingly modern in today’s retro climate, not unlike the ’90s-inspired sportswear you’ll find at Urban Outfitters. Today some of that gear can be found on Grailed and eBay for about as much as a pack of cigarettes in New York City. They got swag, too: Marlboro-logo-adorned windbreakers, shorts, fanny packs, and even caps.
On the trip, adventurers got free smokes and drove Marlboro-branded Jeeps. Advertising in other countries was growing increasingly difficult, so the event was a way to market Marlboro’s rugged cowboy lifestyle to the world (Americans were legally barred from participating). In 1984, decades after Reader's Digest first broke the news that cigarettes are catastrophically bad for your health, Marlboro created its Adventure Team: a once-a-year event that invited 42 people from around the world to the American West for a 12-day hiking and rafting trip.
