Nur Abbas has seen it all. The acclaimed designer has worked for fashion houses such as Maison Margiela, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton before moving to UNIQLO, becoming Design Director at Nike ACG and VP of Apparel Design at Yeezy.
In 2024, he founded his own brand, gnuhr, through which he continues to push the boundaries of ultralight outdoor gear.
APR MAG met Nur on a sunny Monday morning to talk about how the two phases of his career - fashion and gear - have influenced one another, his design philosophy, how it feels to be copied, and what he learned about himself from working with Kanye West.
APR MAG:
Hey Nur, you probably know the saying 'clothes make the man'. What’s the role of clothing in your life and what are you aiming for when creating a garment?
Nur Abbas:
Yeah, there's a lot you can unpack with that, whether that statement is true or not. Sometimes when I think about clothes and style, about the semiotics of it, I think it might be the opposite. It’s not the clothes that make the man, it’s the man that makes the clothes - certainly when it comes to style. When looking at people that have done something extraordinary, they can wear anything they want and it's going to look cool. Musicians are oftentimes the most accomplished or outrageous people, they often have the most charisma. They will, by nature, look cool because of who they are. I think about clothes not in terms of what I wear, but more like who I am. It’s that, what communicates whether you look stylish or not. If you feel confident, you're going to look confident and then you're going to look good. But even this can work both ways, you can also feel confident by wearing something special. It's not as simple as: if you wear something, it's going to make you a certain way. It’s a two way street.
Now, in the second phase of my career, working with brands like Nike, Uniqlo, Goldwin, or especially now with gnuhr, a brand with a focus on functional clothes that are purpose driven, it's a different conversation about what clothes can do for you. It’s not only style, it’s also about the practical aspect of clothes. But just because you wear performance clothing doesn't mean you'll be able to perform. If you want to climb a mountain, you need to be in good shape. The clothes aren't going to do it for you, but they might allow you to go further, they might make it more comfortable, and they might allow for more safety. It's not as simple as the clothes making the man, as it were.
APR MAG:
It’s like a double-edged sword, right? Very often it's not what you wear, but how you wear it.
Nur:
Exactly. The way I think about clothes is they're essentially just a very old technology that's constantly evolving. New technologies are constantly being implemented into it and they allow us to do more, they enhance who we are. If you wear a suit, you can enhance the shape of your body, so you enhance the way you look. With functional clothes for the outdoors, if you're in the wilderness and you're stuck in the rain, having the right gear can be crucial. The same with being able to carry things, whether it's having the right pockets or a bag. If you have to hold what you have in your hands, it's quite a big downgrade from having a pair of pockets or the right bag. For me, all these aspects are on the scale of what the clothes can do for you, but ultimately you have to be the right person to begin with. The clothes can then enhance that or help you along with it.
APR MAG:
Looking at your career, it seems like it can be divided into two parts - the fashion and the gear episode. How has working in fashion shaped your design language and the work you're doing now?
Nur:
I think this is true. These 10 to 15 years of my career were definitely fashion and style driven. I was very lucky that I had the chance to work with some of the best fashion houses in the world. That certainly helped me in terms of moving to this slightly different world of outdoors gear and performance clothing. Working for houses like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, the standards were extremely high because the expectation was that the clothes would be of the best quality, made from the best fabrics. We spent a lot of time on sourcing materials. Equally, we spent a lot of time around the ideas - the storytelling, creating a concept and a world around the clothes, making sure everything was coherent and strengthening this approach to design that worked well when shown at the end. All of these aspects are easy to apply to gear.
If you make a pair of shorts or a jacket, an interesting set of colours is not going to take away from the functionality and performance of that piece, but for the audience it's much more compelling. My fashion background serves me well, just because I got to develop my skills as a designer to a very high degree, so that I could then translate that to an adjacent world because we're still making clothes. Sometimes it can even be the same fabric. Some of the factories that we're working with now are the same ones that I've worked with throughout my career.
For gear, there's no sacrifice in terms of quality to it. If anything, the quality needs to be even higher. Overall, we're making gear you're relying on for your safety, so we want to make sure it works. It has to function the way it's advertised, we're quite meticulous about making sure that we've sourced good fabrics. Everything meets our expectations the same way I would have always done it.
When I was working in fashion, I always looked towards the outdoor industry as a point of inspiration. I was looking at outdoor gear and thought about how we could translate that into something that makes sense for our customer. At a certain point, I wanted to get much closer to the source. Instead of it being a point of inspiration, I wanted to find out what it takes to make gear. It's really difficult to find a way to make interesting clothes and to advance the technology of clothing. gnuhr is where I've ended up.
APR MAG:
From your description, it sounds like these two worlds, which seem to be opposing, have way more in common than one would think.
Nur:
There is definitely a tension between fashion and gear. There's fashion, which is somewhat frivolous and gear, which is somewhat essential. Maybe that's also why I've gravitated towards this. I'm still a fan of fashion and I appreciate this idea of expression in clothing and what it can do, but that doesn't have to be mutually exclusive to creating things that feel more essential, that you actually need for a certain purpose. Something I talk about a lot in the studio is the idea of purpose-driven design, making gear for a specific activity. It can't just exist because it looks nice, that's really not enough for me anymore.
APR MAG:
Yeah, I would definitely agree. We need truly good product and we need product that works well for its purpose - with that, you’ll need less in total.
Nur:
Yeah, I agree. But like I said, they're not mutually exclusive. You can make something that is purely purpose-driven but as long as it doesn't come at any cost or trade off, there's no reason to not also bring in a little bit of humanity, soul or culture that connects with people. The outdoor industry is changing, it’s no longer purely purpose-driven. In the past, it used to be almost anti-fashion. There was this idea of outdoor gear being purposefully ugly, almost like a badge of honor. This has changed.
There’s a lot of new brands emerging in the space of running and outdoor gear with a very different approach. There's no longer a reason to be purposefully ugly. Let's make sure it fits the purpose and then, if we can choose a nice color, why not? If we can consider the fit in a way that is flattering to the body and it doesn't take away from the function, why not? There's all these other factors that as long as they don’t take away from the product, we can only make it better.
APR MAG:
At the moment, we see many brands using the terms innovation or heritage, which have almost become buzzwords. How do you see this movement and how do you aim to position gnuhr within this framework?
Nur:
It's interesting to see and interesting that you pick up on that. At gnuhr, we're very careful about our language because we don’t want to make any claims we can’t back up. When taking the HEATWAVE PUFFER for example, we knew it was a particularly good product and it worked very well, but we didn't want to just throw out marketing claims. So we did some research to make sure we would have claims that are verifiable. They are very matter of fact, they’re objective. Within this tension between fashion and gear - fashion is somewhat subjective, whereas we at gnuhr see gear as generally objective, so the language is pretty much matter of fact.
As for heritage, the brand is basically just a few years old, so we don't have any heritage to speak of. We react to the heritage of clothing and we respect the language of clothes and fashion, but we approach it in a completely new way. We appreciate approaching things with naivety so that we can forget about the rules of how to do things and ask ourselves whether we can do it differently or start from scratch.
A lot of the design that we're doing is based on this objective approach on how to make it better and to improve things objectively. That's also why we did get a utility pattern for our t-shirt, we started from scratch and found an entirely new way of cursing a piece of clothing. Something we really try to avoid is style for the sake of style, you won’t find that. Also, we really try to avoid calling something technical. This is something I see a lot in the industry, it's equally a buzzword as innovation. It's technical in what sense? There's many different meanings that word can take on depending on the context. I think oftentimes people, when they call a piece of clothing technical, they're probably referring to the material. But what does that mean? They might mean it's a synthetic material, it might have some kind of physical properties that offer a benefit, a technical way of making might involve lasers or glue. But for us, these aspects are just part of the process.
Oftentimes we use traditional techniques for what we’re making because they're tried and tested, and also more affordable. If you stitch a seam with a needle and thread on an industrial sewing machine and you make the right choices, you can make that seam extremely strong and durable. If you glue it, you run the risk of it failing quite quickly. It looks technical, but it doesn't necessarily offer the physical benefit. This is where purpose comes back because I think with gnuhr, part of the purpose that we're trying to find is the idea of ultralight outdoor gear. If you can use natural fibers instead of synthetics and it works for the purpose, great. For us, it really just needs to objectively work or objectively be new if we're going to apply any kind of buzzword.
APR MAG:
You’ve worked for fashion houses like Gucci and Margiela, but also for Uniqlo which has a completely different price point. How does the aspect of affordability affect your design choices today?
Nur:
For me, this boils down to just one word: focus. When having a lower price point, it gives me a lot more focus in terms of design that the piece really has to have. It has to be stripped down to the essentials. It is super interesting to start thinking about what you actually need. There's a lot of details that are nice to have when it comes to making a product, but what is essential becomes much more nuanced. That’s when it comes back to this idea of purpose, which usually helps to answer those questions. When you don't have these constraints, you're just trying to make something that looks nice. Then it’s more about whether it would be nice to have another pocket or another detail, and not about whether it’s truly essential. For something to be truly essential, you do need a purpose. The idea of being ultra light helps that focus as well.
The price point is an important factor for gnuhr, because we don't want to make it too precious. We want to make gear that people use, wear out, and repair so that they get the most out of it. We want to make it accessible, so you're not afraid to wear it.
APR MAG:
We often see your work reimagined or even copied by other brands. Is this something you're aware of and how does it feel?
Nur:
We're definitely aware of it. We get sent things quite often where people see similarities or things that are copied almost exactly. We're quite transparent about how we work, we'll show the process. We talk about the fabric mills we work with, so people can go to the source and see which fabric mill we're working with - whether it's Polartec or some of the lesser known ones in Italy, where we do our engineered knits. We often name the factories and they'll tell us that competitors reach out to them and want to buy those fabrics. Honestly, I'm quite happy about that because it means we're doing something right. If brands we respect are trying to do what we do, that's a nice validation. I'm also happy that the partners we work with are getting extra business because they're essential to us. Oftentimes the fabric innovation isn't something we're making, the mills are creating it. If their business is healthy, that's good for us. It helps our relationship because they know we're quite open about working with them. There's a positive side to it.
In terms of copying, I don't think I'd ever say that I'm annoyed by it. I'm definitely more flattered than annoyed. If a bigger company copies a smaller company and they can get that product to more people more quickly, the danger is sometimes that there's the possibility that this product might be associated with them as opposed to where it came from. It can then have a very serious business impact on the smaller brand. In some cases, it can also have a positive outcome for us. The whole reason I wanted to start the business is that I couldn't find the gear I was looking for. We really just enjoy the process of coming up with new ideas, that's part of having the studio working on gnuhr. It’s an engine for new ideas and for working with other brands where we can apply that same mentality. The whole point is that we can explore new territory. Hopefully, we can stay a step ahead. If someone might copy something that we’ve just released, the goal is that the next ideas by then are already in process.
APR MAG:
This ties in well with what you've said earlier on style, there's this “if you know, you know” part to it. If you know where it came from, you will always know who copied whom.
Nur:
Exactly, that's the thing. The fact that we're not a logo driven brand plays a role as well. Hopefully the piece that we're making, as simple as it is, will be recognizable just from the design, from its propulsion, and the overall look and feel. When people do copy us, it's usually pretty obvious because you can't get away with just applying a logo. The actual design is the identity.
APR MAG:
Gnuhr’s garments are made to move. What's the role of movement in your in your life and how does it shape your working process at gnuhr?
Nur:
Again, it’s this idea of purpose. When we're making clothes, we think about what's the purpose. Usually that comes down to something like backpacking. My ultimate aspiration is to be able to do that much more. Running the business and having a family, being able to go on a backpacking trip is the ultimate treat. One of the reasons I appreciate something like backpacking is that it's relatively accessible, most people can do it. You just need to be able to walk a certain amount, there's no levels. You can go as long as you want.
Something like backpacking has a wide range of aerobic output and a wide range of conditions. Because of this large set of parameters, you need clothes that are versatile by their very nature. Their versatility makes it interesting for me because then these clothes work for lots of other activities, too. The WARP SHORT we developed brought us into the realm of running, which wasn’t our intention. We wanted to make a really good hiking short, but all good hiking shorts are basically running shorts. So, we decided to make a good running short which would be good for hiking, too. That made us think about the needs a runner has - whether it's the fit, the utility of the pockets on the belt, the type of fabric, the finishing, and even the price. We're certainly looking at a more extreme level of movement when it came to that. From there, everything can cascade down. If you can run in it, you can probably do a through hike in it. If you can do a through hike, you can do a day hike. If you can do a day hike, you could probably wear it in everyday life.
The other aspect that comes up with movement is the moving subject because there's different approaches. One approach that's favored by many performance brands is to make the clothes extremely fitted, which oftentimes allows for a better range of motion, there are benefits to doing that. Our approach is that we generally favor slightly looser clothing, which we describe as a universal fit. We want garments that fit different body types.
The trade off with very tight fitting clothing is that the clothes need to fit really well to have a performance benefit. If they don't fit correctly, they're not going to perform well, and they're not going to look good. When we think about our more universal fit, we oftentimes have a straighter shoulder, a lower armhole, and a slightly boxier and shorter fit. We want our garments to work for lots of different people in the objective sense of whether they function properly, but also in the subjective sense of looks. If it doesn't look good on you, you might not put it on - not even for its function.
APR MAG:
You've also worked for Kanye West, who fired you because you didn't want to do a White Lives Matter t-shirt. What did you learn about your own values when it comes to work and design when working with him?
Nur:
I learned a lot. It was a very valuable experience for me, very short but intense. In my five years at Nike, I probably designed as many pieces and made as many samples as in my six months at Yeezy. I had a huge creative output in a very short time because Kanye really pushed the team, and he sometimes pushed too far. Ultimately, I don't know if I would have been able to do it for more than six months, but in that short space of time, I really do appreciate what I experienced and learned about myself. Often he wanted things right away, so you'd have to make that sample that day. If it meant that you had to cut the fabric and get on the sewing machine yourself, you would do so. Sometimes he wanted to see a hundred sketches that day, so you'd sit down and sketch, whether you had ideas or not. In this process, you’d usually figure out that you did have ideas, but it did take 70 sketches to get there. It was very valuable in that sense.
The most important thing it taught me was balance. I saw two very different extremes of my career in a very short space of time. There was Nike, this extremely structured, rigid, and process oriented way of working. Everything was managed and I didn't develop my creativity as much as I would have liked to. On the other hand, there was Yeezy. It was complete chaos. Every day was a new day, but it was extremely creative. I had a lot of creative output in a short space of time but ultimately, the pieces didn't go anywhere. What we made just evaporated, the pieces didn’t reach the market. It was very frustrating in that sense. What I’ve learned and what I’m trying to implement in the studio today is how to find balance, how to create enough space for this creative chaos, for interesting things to emerge, and to allow space for myself and the team to be hands on, to sketch, to make things, to play. At the same time, we need just enough structure that we can deliver a real product that people can actually experience and get a benefit from.
APR MAG:
From the outside, it seems like you've found this balance. Especially in terms of product.
Nur:
That's the thing with balance, you need to constantly work on keeping that equilibrium. It's quite an active balance.
APR MAG:
Thank you, Nur.