SHALE REVOLUTION PRODUCES THE GROWTH OF FRACK CHIC.

Manufacturers like Carhartt and Wrangler aren’t just selling more clothes and boots, they’re selling higher-quality products. The WSJ reports: “The appetite for fracking gear is leading clothes makers to send research and development teams to consult with oil-field workers in Texas and North Dakota, in the same way Nike Inc. taps elite athletes to test out its track shoes and football cleats.”

The clothes are getting lighter, more breathable, safer, and better looking. One refinery worker told the WSJ that he’ll “even wear the jeans out on the weekends.” Once the hipsters in Brooklyn start sporting flame-resistant overalls and clunky steel-toed boots, we’ll know that the shale boom has fully arrived. In the meantime, we can be grateful for the diffuse economic benefits fracking is bringing the country.

Indeed.