Hiking isn’t for everyone. It’s a beautiful pastime, but it requires tenacity and a consistent mode of transportation. At the very least, it can be one of the cheapest ways to experience that elusive sense of verdant peace. With the MO/GO exoskeleton hiking pants, a traipse through the mountains is becoming more mechanical, not to mention expensive. For this pair of turbo-fied trousers, you’ll need to pony up $4,500 if you get in early. Later, it will cost you a cool $5,000.
The MO/GO (short for “Mountain Goat”) is a joint effort with established outdoor apparel makers Arc’Teryx and the tech startup Skip. Remember Samsung’s exoskeleton pants concepts? These are kind of like that, though Skp and Arc’Teryx’s first commercial product covers up all those glaring metal bits with an already-pricey pair of designer hiking pants. The MO/GO is supposed to push you 40% harder, according to the company. What does that mean in context? Fast Company rolled around in them for a hike and found the exoskeleton took a lot of weight off the knee, cushioned footfalls, and kicked the leg forward when tackling an incline.
Just two weeks ago, I dragged myself up the short, though intense Breakneck Ridge loop for the sake of an Apple and Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra comparison. There wasn’t a single point in that hike where I thought “I could really use a wearable exoskeleton.” At first, you would think the companies would market them as a literal leg up for aging hikers or those with leg issues who still want to enjoy the pastime—at a price. But no, they’re instead described as “range extenders” to make proficient hikers better at what they already do. Skip says it has another, related product “designed to help people living with neurological conditions” in the works.
These pants promise turn you into the world’s most efficient cyborg hiker. And anybody who meets you on the trail will know it too. Two braces go into each leg, while the 3-hour power pack sits at the belt line just above your posterior.
The MO/GO is a pair of Arc’teryx Gamma pants with cuffs to snap Skip’s carbon fiber exoskeletal thighs onto the outside of each leg, which should impact your quadriceps and hamstring muscles. The companies claim each ligament weighs 2 pounds, with the pants in total clocking in at 7 pounds, but instead of adding weight the arms absorb the impact of each step, enough to make users feel “30 pounds lighter.”
Just for context, a regular pair of men’s Arc’teryx Gamma pants costs $200 on the company’s website, so you can already tell how much of the MO/GO’s price is determined by its tech. On Skip’s site, you can see an internal look at how the motors spin every time the user raises their knee. The pants are supposed to have an on-board algorithm to handle stairs or a steep incline differently. You don’t control it with an app either. There are three buttons on the pants: an on/off switch, as well as “less assistance” and “more assistance” toggles.
Skip’s founders were originally from Google. Skip CEO Kathryn Zealand told TechCrunch that late in 2023 it “started becoming clear that it wouldn’t really make sense as a project within Alphabet.” She was originally a lead in Google’s “X” projects, which included a few exoskeleton leg armatures. These were mainly billed as tools to augment workers doing manual labor or help those with mobility issues. Bloomberg reported Zealand raised $6 million to spin Skip out of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
Arc’teryx is hosting eight-hour, $80 rentals for the MO/GO in Canada and the western U.S. There are some more demos taking place on Aug. 23 and 24. As for now, there are 10 sizes, and those who want one need to offer their full height, weight, and size requirements to Skip when they preorder. You could get even more if you’re doing a less strenuous hike, and preorders come with two batteries. Those who want to jump in early need to put down a $100 deposit. Reservations are set to ship in December 2025. At the very least, the MO/GO is not the priciest consumer-grade exoskeleton we’ve seen.
