Say It Ain't So, Drakkar Bros. Teen Males Are Now Smellmaxxing.

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“The sillage on this goes hard,” I overheard while deep in a sniffing spiral in the fragrance section of a Sephora. “I still prefer Haltane,” someone else said.

Anyone familiar with the world of niche fragrance knows Haltane as a crowd-favorite oud scent. I tore myself away from my blotter strips and realized that these words were coming out of the mouths of two teenage boys: one in a Nike tech sweat set, Foot Locker bag in hand, and the other in a Fear of God Essentials hoodie with a mango ice vape dangling from his mouth.

Since when did teenage boys casually drop the word sillage in conversation? I was floored; they looked like the type of boys who would’ve asked me why I talked “like a girl” in high school, and yet here we were, speaking the same language.

Take a trip to your local Zumiez, and you’ll notice that amid a sea of Stüssy shirts and Carhartt cargos, there are notes of oud, white musk, and mint lingering in the air. Alas, young boys don’t want just Supreme anymore—they want Santal. One survey found that fragrance spending among teen boys jumped 26% in 2024; the boys are getting serious about scent.

Welcome to the era of “smellmaxxing.” To be a smellmaxxer is to treat fragrance as more of a competitive sport than a grooming habit; in other words, your sillage is your scoreboard. It’s a movement largely fueled by teenage boys on TikTok, and it follows a larger trend of trying to “maxx” out your real-life avatar (see: looksmaxxing, frame maxxing, and even carb maxxing). In the eyes of the smellmaxxers, your signature scent isn’t just what you smell like. It’s a vibe, a status, and a symbol of social capital.

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