Athleisure

Athleisure is a type of clothing that mimics technical apparel but is meant for everyday wear rather than athletic performance. Athleisure copies many of the details of performance clothing, such as wide waistbands, diamond-shaped crotches, and flat seams, as well as the use of stretchy fabrics. However, it is typically not manufactured to withstand the rigors of activities such as triathlons, surfing, or skiing.

The term athleisure dates to about the turn of the twenty-first century, but the transition from athletics to leisure and everyday wear began late in the nineteenth century. For example, rubber-soled tennis and basketball shoes, also known as sneakers, were originally developed in 1892 for athletic activities. As fashion rules eased, athletic shoes became acceptable in many venues, including schools and some workplaces. Although athletes may still choose footwear that is designed for performance, many individuals simply wear sneakers because they like the look and feel. Many athleisure customers choose comfort and style as well.

Brief History

Participation in sports became popular during the late nineteenth century. With the introduction of rubber-soled shoes for use while playing lawn sports, many university students began to participate in intramural sports. These young men were inclined to invest in and wear sports attire rather than traditional modes of university dress such as shirts and ties. More young men began attending classes wearing athletic clothing such as polo shirts—which were designed as tennis shirts—and sport coats—which arrived in the United States as riding jackets—and the practice became increasingly common.

Many common items of clothing were designed for athletes. Sweatshirts and sweaters were developed as athletic attire to encourage male rowers and golfers to sweat and thus lose weight. College students began wearing letterman’s sweaters around campus to advertise their participation in their sport of choice, and many young women took to wearing these sweaters as well. Sweaters quickly became mainstream as young women began collecting them and wearing them for all occasions. Soon young people were wearing polo shirts, sport coats, sweaters, and sweatshirts in almost all settings and situations, while their elders bemoaned the loosening of social and sartorial traditions.

True athleisure wear was born in the late 1990s. Canadian Chip Wilson, a retail entrepreneur, decided to try yoga to ease his back pain. When he attended his first class, he noticed the instructor was wearing form-fitting, stretchy pants, something a dancer might wear. The pants not only gave her freedom to move and stretch, they also highlighted her fit physique—in particular her derriere. Wilson was struck by both the practicality of the instructor’s attire and the way it enhanced her toned body, and decided to mass-produce his own vision of yoga wear. In 1998 he founded Lululemon, a company that sold fashionable athletic wear that could be worn as casual clothing outside the yoga studio or gym. As Lululemon’s popularity soared, the company found its biggest market in the United States while also becoming a worldwide brand. By January 2024, Lululemon’s net revenue was $9.6 billion worldwide, yielding the third-highest revenue in the athleisure market after Nike and Adidas, respectively.

Overview

When Lululemon debuted, the American public was primed to embrace athleisure clothing. The twentieth century had spawned a fitness revolution that embraced aerobics, cycling, and other activities that continued to influence consumers, who opted to wear fitness-related apparel even if they did not participate in sports or exercise programs. Fashion in many Western countries, in particular the United States, had been becoming increasingly casual for more than a century, and athleisure wear was the next step in that progression. While elastane (Spandex) was already a factor in many fashion items, athleisure garments incorporated a large amount of the synthetic fiber. Spandex was more durable, flexible, and washable thanks to technological improvements.

As Lululemon’s popularity increased, other manufacturers were inspired to copy Wilson’s success with form-fitting garments. Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, and retailers such as Target introduced their own lines of stretchy fitness fashion. Other companies quickly followed suit. Alo Yoga, Gymshark, Fabletics, and Vuori were companies that began in the twenty-first century with yoga, gym, and athleisure clothing lines. Young consumers, in particular teens, increasingly chose yoga pants and other athleisure items as their favorite clothes. Between 2011 and 2016, athletic wear grew 7 percent a year to become 30 percent of the clothing and footwear industry. Since then, the industry's Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) continued to grow exponentially, and according to Fortune Business Insights, the global athleisure market size is projected to grow to $716.05 billion by 2032.

This fondness for stretchy, comfortable attire affected sales of traditional leisure favorites, in particular denim jeans. American retailers reported dismal sales of denim jeans as athleisure fashions gained ground. In 2017, US imports of stretchy knit pants outpaced imports of denim jeans for the first time. Although some brands reported increased sales of denim jeans in 2018 and 2019, the popularity of athleisure attire had altered the landscape of denim as well. Many brands of denim jeans incorporated varying amounts of elastane to improve the comfort—and forgiveness—of jeans.

While denim jean sales were down for much of the early twenty-first century, young people in particular still gravitated toward the style of jeans. To fulfill the desires of these consumers, about 2009 manufacturers created stretchy leggings designed to look like jeans. These pants, dubbed jeggings, included either real or fake pockets, fake zip flies, and printed seam stitches.

As when the adoption of sweaters and polo shirts for non-athletic purposes sparked a backlash among the older generation, so too has athleisure wear drawn scorn from some quarters. College-age women first spurred the trend. They drew the ire of a group of women who in 2008 started a website called Tights Are Not Pants. The women wrote letters to the editors of fashion magazines, and numerous publications covered the controversy over young women wearing body-hugging leggings as pants. Beginning in 2012, some schools in Canada and the United States banned leggings unless they were worn under a dress or skirt. Some supportive parents argued that schools and society should focus on fighting rape culture instead of sexualizing young girls.

In 2019, many on social media debated a letter to the editor of the University of Notre Dame’s student newspaper. The writer identified herself as a Catholic mother of four sons attending the university. She described her shock and disappointment at seeing young women wearing leggings while attending Mass and maintained that she believed the men nearby were, like her, acutely aware of the women’s buttocks. In response, many Notre Dame students organized a protest encouraging students to observe Leggings Day by wearing the items to class. A student commented to the media that it was difficult to determine how many people were participating in the protest or were just wearing leggings because that’s how they typically dress.

Though Lululemon received negative press because of comments made by Chip Wilson in 2013 about the body type and size best suited to wear his brand, in 2020 the brand started marketing its clothing to sizes 0-20 and using models of varying sizes in order to demonstrate inclusivity and to show customers how their product looks on different body types. Other companies, like Athleta, Old Navy, and Beyond Yoga began showcasing plus size models in their athleisure brands around the same time as well. These brands and many others also began embracing body inclusivity—the practice of celebrating all bodies regardless of their shape, size, skin tone, gender, or physical abilities—as a marketing strategy for their athleisure brands and lines.

Bibliography

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Hanbury, Mary. “A Dominant American Clothing Style Is Back from the Dead—but Athleisure Has Changed It Forever.” Business Insider, 3 Apr. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/denim-back-in-style-but-athleisure-changed-it-forever-2018-4. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

“Lululemon 2023 Annual Report.” Lululemon, 21 Mar. 2024, corporate.lululemon.com/~/media/Files/L/Lululemon/investors/annual-reports/lululemon-2023-annual-report.pdf. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

“Net Revenue of Lululemon Worldwide in Fiscal 2023, by Region (in Million U.S. Dollars).” Statista, 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/422587/net-revenue-of-lululemon-worldwide-by-region/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Thompson, Derek. “Everything You Wear Is Athleisure.” The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/bicycle-bloomers-yoga-pants-how-sports-shaped-modern-fashion/574081/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Tiffany, Kaitlyn. “A Decade of Leggings Controversy, Explained.” Vox, 28 Mar. 2019, www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/28/18285843/leggings-controversy-history-notre-dame-tights-not-pants. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

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Wilson, Chip. “Why the Word ‘Athleisure’ Is Completely Misunderstood.” Forbes, 18 Apr. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/chipwilson/2018/04/18/why-the-word-athleisure-is-completely-misunderstood/#1745245e4697. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.