Earlier this month, GQ Style published a profile that centered on “three premier climbers and a couple of cute friends” showing off their stylish clothes and climbing skills in Joshua Tree, California. Notably, however, the premier climbers turned out to be three dudes while the “cute friends” were several bikini-clad women who go unnamed in the piece. So Outdoor Research decided to publish their own hybrid fashion/climbing profile. Only, theirs is gender-flipped.
Outdoor Research doesn’t issue a specific complaint against the GQ Style profile, but their article opens with the statement: “This gallery was inspired by GQ’s climbing and fashion photo shoot from Joshua Tree National Park. If you haven’t seen it yet, we strongly encourage you to check it out, ideally side by side with this gallery.” As The Dyrt points out, the images from the two articles are perfect inversions of one another.
In addition to the photos, the Outdoor Research article also features passages like this one:
I just really like being able to hang around on the rocky crag and show off my cool climbing clothes, instead of just the gym,” said Kjersti C. “And there are always cute boys, just sitting around half naked watching us. Usually they’re just hanging out in the cars, keeping our beer cold and waiting to give us foot massages after a long day of sending hard. But sometimes, they even let us hose them down or splash around in a river and get super sexy. It’s pretty cool.
You can see a full comparison of the two photosets on The Dyrt. Outdoor Research also released a behind-the-scenes video from their shoot to match the one released by GQ Style.