Dockers

For over 30 years now, Dockers has been famous for introducing the chino pant into the workplace. A division of the Levi Strauss Company, it's become a symbol of American culture as much as a revolution in menswear. In the 1980s, men had limited choices in office and work attire: there were worker's overalls, suits, and perhaps blue jeans in certain manual professions. Dockers arrived with a solution in 1986 with the democratization of their now-celebrated signature article: the chino, or khakis as they're called in the United States. These pants, invented by an officer stationed in colonial India with the British army, was renowned for its comfortable and pleasantly light cotton and, perhaps ironically, the hippie generation loved them. It was thanks to a genius marketing scheme that Dockers succeeded in changing the history of work clothes. In 1992, the label wrote a letter directed to Human Resources managers throughout the United States, encouraging them to allot one day per week for workers to adopt a more relaxed look at the office. And thus, "casual Friday" as we know it was born. The move was a hit, and Dockers (whose name is a reference to the workers who loaded and unloaded boats), is still today the informal uniform of Silicon Valley's wunderkinds. Over time, the brand has been able to maintain its inventive and audacious spirit, extending its sharply practical eye to a whole host of wardrobe essentials. Voted the best invention of the year 2001 by Time Magazine, the Mobile Pant is specifically designed to accommodate your smartphone. The Supreme Flex model is a hybrid, somewhere between track pant and chino, whose payoff is extreme comfort. Consistently keeping pace with the modern man, Dockers continues to hold a top spot in masculine wardrobe must-haves.