Athleisure: An Evolution and Analysis

October 4th, 2019

Athletic wear can be seen from the Kardashians to the girl down the street and everything in between. Over the past decade, Athleisure has seemingly taken over fashion culture. What once was just workout clothing has exploded into a $270 billion market with big brand names fighting to hold the top spot.

But what caused this trend to be the next big thing?

As it turns out, this 'new' fad isn't that new after all. According to an article by Derek Thompson of The Atlantic, Chip Wilson sparked a global revolution in 1997 when he founded Lululemon. Although Lululemon did have a massive role in turning athleisure mainstream, Thompson contends that we can take the trend back even further than the company's inception. Deirdre Clemente, a fashion historian at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, comments that the barriers of American formality have been falling apart since the technological improvements of synthetic fiber that make clothes more flexible and durable, a modern fixation on healthy appearances, and the blurring of activewear and office fashion.

During the late 19th century, rubber shoes, men's polos, and sports coats started coming into fashion. According to Thompson, all three of these things occurred during a rise in intramural sports involvement. These two events are extremely important because, with the advent of organized sports in America, people were looking for more casual clothing that was lighter and easier to move in.

Rubber shoes, for example, were made by the U.S.U.S. Rubber Company in 1892 and then marketed to athletes. The point is that they had a superior grip, which made playing tennis on grass courts easier. This is where they got the name' tennis shoe.' But much like today's yoga pants, tennis shoes started making their way into the American public's everyday wear. Eventually, the dress shoe lost favorably to the more comfortable and wearable tennis shoe, allowing this new shoe to de-formalize American wardrobes.

The polo shirts are another example of young men looking for clothing more suited to their active lifestyles. The polo shirts were originally made for tennis. Still, they became colloquially known as 'polo shirts,' according to Kristen Bateman in Allure's article. Men complained of their shirts being too thick. So in 1933, René Lacoste, a famous tennis player of the time, came up with a cotton shirt that was light and breathable. It took the market by storm, and the little alligator emblazoned on the chest is still recognizable today.

But men didn't just wear the shirts to the tennis courts; the shirts started appearing in offices and streets. They became staples of any man's wardrobe. Whether for a casual day out with family or heading to the office on a hot day, polo shirts became an example of incorporating athletic wear into business wear. It was another nail in the coffin of American formal clothing. 

 From then on, athletic wear slowly evolved into American wardrobes from formal to casual. From the advent of the sweatshirt to the short shorts of the 1970s, American wardrobes started dressing more casually.

For instance, according to Iffley Road, the U.S. company Champion invented the first hooded sweatshirt in the early 1930s. It marketed them to warm workers and athletes in cold New York winters. It cemented its necessity in American wardrobes after it appeared in the original Rocky (1976) movie. Let's look at how sweatshirts are in America today. We can see a vast range of more high fashion workplace acceptable and utilitarian variants.

I believe Clemente is right when she says the new explosion of athletic wear is not new. Looking back through fashion history, it is obvious that many milestones have led us to this point in fashion. 

Although, there may be a scientific reason that athletic wear has become so popular recently. It can be linked to a 2012 study by Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky. In their study, Adam and Galinsky explain the psychological effects of clothing on their wearers. They put a group of test subjects in lab coats, and then had another group without lab coats. The duo sorted test subjects into two groups. One would get lab coats, and one would not, and then each group would be given attentive-based problems. The result concluded that "physically wearing a lab coat increased selection attention compared to not wearing a lab coat." Adam and Galinsky called this result "en-clothed recognition," which shows that clothes influence our psychological processes.

The study supports the long-held belief that wearing certain clothes can make us feel certain emotions. Millennials are very involved in a healthy lifestyle. This is accounted for by the rise in workoutworkout facilities and activities as well as the rise in a desire for better food. With their desire to make their bodies healthier, it isn't a far leap to think that younger people would also want their clothes to reflect that lifestyle.

According to psychologist and personal trainer Susan Runicki, wearing workout clothes helps people feel better about themselves and makes them more active. She says, "You think other people will think, if you're wearing those clothes, you're a workout woman!" Runicki chops this up to positive feedback, in which feeling good means wearing clothes that make you look good or at least make you look like you are trying to be more active.

Athleisure is a constantly evolving trend, and judging from its long history, it appears it will have a long life.

Always Busy,

Sam