T-shirt, grey hoodie and “oh these will do” trainers: you don’t need these items to get a tech job in 2025.
Sure, a Patagonia fleece in your wardrobe wouldn’t hurt — but you can also attend that AI conference in a jumpsuit, blazer, quarter zip top or cardigan. The daily uniform has become looser, more colourful.
“I’ve noticed a definite change: more relaxed silhouettes, looser trousers instead of the default straight-leg or skinny jeans, an embrace of fabrics like linen and subtle details like hand-crafted belts or statement jewellery,” says Alina Gegamova, cofounder of Madrid-based PR firm snul comms.
“Founders are feeling more expressive and feeling more confident in their individual styles,” agrees Hailey Eustace, who heads London deeptech PR firm Commplicated. An often-homogenous industry is “more varied now, which is a good thing,” she adds.
When did this evolution begin? It’s hard to pinpoint, but sometime after flip-flop-wearing Sam Bankman-Fried and black turtleneck-wearer Elizabeth Holmes both went to jail. Suddenly, techies were easily-identified villains, ripe to parody in TV and film.
So what is the new tech dress code? We spoke to a dozen tech people to find out.
Patagonia’s got competition
Not breaking news: the Patagonia gilet remains a visual shorthand for male investor. So prevalent is this get-up, that gilet divination has become a niche hobby for style watchers.
“I recently analysed the colour trends of Patagonia vests in Frankfurt,” says Jana Strieder, co-CEO of NachlassDialog, a German platform that simplifies estate planning. “Khaki is the colour of the year. Dark blue and black are out.” Berlin-based investor Tony Kula went viral on LinkedIn earlier this year with a tongue-in-cheek post describing how the position of the zipper on a vest reveals if a VC will back your startup.
Why does fleece conformity endure? It’s versatile, says Strieder. “Acceptable for a meeting or dinner.”
But shockingly, Patagonia’s stranglehold on VCs may be loosening, says Eustace. “The hot commodity now is Carhartt. It’s funny because VCs know it’s more for people that need durable clothes than for investors who sit in posh offices all day, but they still wear it.” For female VCs, meanwhile, “it’s more the ‘quiet luxury’ of high quality fabrics and no logos,” Eustace adds.
Running the world’s biggest startup hub gives Station F boss Roxanne Varza a view of thousands of techies. You’d rarely see Patagonia vests on French investors, she says. “Maybe fashion has always mattered a bit more here.”
Defence founders ‘emphasise strength’
Climate tech? So last season. As Europe goes on a rearming spending spree, 2025’s must-have investment is the defence tech startup.
The basic garb for founders in this field is a practical, nondescript shirt, vest or jacket.
These clothing choices underscore a subtle message of strength, Strieder believes. “You need to emphasise that you’re masculine, so you’ll see short sleeve shirts and muscles,” she says. To illustrate, she points to German drone maker Quantum Systems. “It could be a gym advertisement.”
A defence founder who dramatically breaks the mould is Hawaiian-shirt wearing, flip-flop clad Palmer Luckey, CEO of US drone manufacturer Anduril.
Black leather jackets for billionaires
For a long time, it seemed like tech titans were determined to dress as blandly as possible, perhaps as a way to shield their massive wealth. The faux humility is over: billionaires are finally dressing in a way that reflects the power they’ve always had.
“A leather jacket means you have your billion already,” says Strieder. It’s the signature look of Nvidia boss Jensen Huang; Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have all been photographed wearing similar jackets. Which European founder could we see in a black leather jacket? Strieder nominates Sebastian Siemiatkowski, boss of Swedish fintech giant Klarna, post-IPO (that is, if the IPO happens).
One-time bland T-shirt wearer Zuckerberg has had tech’s biggest transformation — his “Meta-morphosis”, as one publication called it, has seen him become an unlikely streetwear figure.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman meanwhile is still clinging to his characterless tees. Old habits die hard: “T-shirt, hoodies and jeans is still the uniform for GenX founders in Estonia too,” reports Lisett Luik, cofounder of Tallinn climate tech company Arbonics.
Flair missing outside tech capitals
Trainers — typically New Balance or Allbirds — are a common sight. A pair of Salomons coupled with a three-quarter zip top is a look too, according to Charlie Onions, a conference producer for the SXSW tech festival in London.
Sensible shoes still have a foothold in German tech, says Strieder. “You’ll see them in Munich, where the tech people are very smart but conservative. It’s shoes in Frankfurt, too; the fintechs wear them to meet bankers. Berlin is looser.”
A case of the second tier cities not quite finding their sartorial feet? Madrid — although the capital, is Spain’s second tech hub behind Barcelona — “remains more formal than most of its counterparts”, says Cian McGuire, business development manager at consultancy Evolution, which helps startups seeking EU funding. “It’s giving a rather smart, uniform vibe,” he adds, where tech workers “mostly blend-in to traditional corporate scenes.”
Uldis T?raudkalns, host of The Pursuit of Scrappiness podcast and Riga resident, flat-out disagrees there are any style trends of note in the Baltics. “People prioritise building and don’t care that much about clothes,” he says. Though come to think of it: “There was a period when most fintech founders seemed to be wearing denim shirts,” he adds.
Do suits have a place?
Formal wear is the only way to go if you work in a family office, says Strieder. “You need someone who’s accepted to represent these rich families and usually it’s a guy in a wrinkle-less shirt.”
Though there’s also a moment when founders dial it up a notch. “Everyone has to dust off their suits to go fundraising,” says Chris Sisserian, head of platform at London VC firm Manta Ray.
But maybe they shouldn’t? The only time Jan ?urn, founder of Prague-based web scraper startup Apify, ever wore a suit was to the company Halloween party. He recalls a friend’s advice: “If you wear a suit, investors won’t take you seriously. It somehow stuck in my mind.”
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