When Amy Kappel signed up for an indoor rock climbing class, she figured it would be a one-time experiment. “It was on my list of sports that I wanted to try,” says Kappel, who already ran and danced ...

The style choice of not wearing socks—or going “commando,” raw doggin’ it, etc.—in rock shoes is, like the jellyfish haircut, a recent phenomenon. When I started climbing in 1973, almost everyone wore ...

In the past few months, it seems as if every man in a hip part of New York City has been wearing a pair of Patagonia baggies or a pair of loosely fitted cargo pants with a plastic buckle around the ...