Athleisure: Pop Culture High School’s “Most Popular”

Whether you’re an avid gym-shark, an online influencer, or just merely a human existing in 2019 it has become essentially required to own some form of sportswear, if not live in it entirely. Once a trend reserved for athletes has become the new norm, a trend for the masses as even six-year-old school girls and 85-year-old grandmas are trading in traditional denim for stretchy Lycra.

Mirriam-Webster defines the word athleisure as: casual clothing designed to be worn for exercising and for general use.

What were once garments used exclusively for exercise and athletic performance have now become staples that are taking the globes fashion trends to a whole new level. From head to toe, athleisure has reformulated every day comfort that many would describe as not merely a trend, but a complete aesthetic by blending corporate and comfort.

The athletic wear industry is no longer exclusively regarded for historically classic athletic wear brands such as Nike, Adidas, and the yoga-wear mecca brand Lululemon. The trend has immersed itself so deeply into popular culture that all of fashion and it’s brands want a piece of the athleisure pie.

History

It’s hard to believe but “athleisure” hasn’t always been a trend accepted by the fashion industry. The term has only in the past decade-or-so been coined for the growth in popularity of the comfortable and stylish garments that pop culture has begun to know and love.

· 1890’s: National Bicycle Craze begins. It became difficult and somewhat dangerous for women to wear long skirts or dresses while riding. Fashion companies began offering solutions, including shorter skirts and button down tops.

· Late 1800’s: Sweaters and sweatshirts began making their appearance around collegiate male athletics. They were originally used as a jersey of types to produce sweating to reduce the weight of the athletes. Eventually everyone began to realize that these garments were too comfortable to only wear them for sport and began wearing them all over.

· 1892: U.S. Rubber Company began producing shoes with rubber soles, and its target consumers were athletes.

· 1920’s: Grand Slam Champion, Frenchman René Lacoste designed a short-sleeved cotton shirt that could be loosened by unbuttoning part-way down the front, with a starch collars that players could turn up to protect their necks from the sun. This shirt became very popular and was adopted by Brooks Brothers who made polo gear. This is how the term “polo shirt” was created.

· 1930: a group of newspaper editors at Dartmouth College organized a campus-wide “Shorts Protest” calling for men to have the pleasure of complete leg freedom.

· 1939: Vogue magazine estimated that the majority college women owned up to 15 sweatshirts.

Although sportswear has been around for centuries and the term athleisure has been used to describe the growth in athletic wear for decades, the term has only recently began to rise in popularity due in large part to Pop Culture and the way that the trend is marketed via social media.

Versatility

As more people are embracing the growth of athleisure just as many if not more have witnessed first-hand how increasingly beneficial the casual style can be when it comes to time management. We have also entered an era where comfort is key. Regardless of what endeavor, comfort has moved its way to the forefront of the human experience.

Deirdre Clemente, a fashion historian at the University of Nevada Las Vegas explaines:

“One hundred years ago, you would have day clothes for the street, dinner clothes for the restaurant, theater clothes, and so many genres of dress,” Clemente said. “Those barriers have come down. Athleisure is the ultimate breaking down of barriers.”

If you’re not fully comfortable wearing your Lulu’s to work, you can still switch out those itchy polyester-wool trousers for a more moveable and breathable Lycra stretch pant. These types of options are still work appropriate but also give extra mobility for those on-the-go.

Our lives are constantly full. Full of work, family, errands, weekend chores, and the list goes on and on. For many, the ability to be able to mix pieces to put together an outfit that is acceptable for multiple tasks is key. Gone are the days where multiple outfit changes were expected, through this trend we have found a solution to the balancing act we all face on the day-to-day.

Growth

Traditional sportswear companies like Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Champion and Puma have embraced fashions latest trends and have ultimately expanded their already well known market. Partnerships and collaborations with professional athletes and celebrities have only increased sales and demand for athleisure products. While these classic brands are reaping the rewards of their established companies, other brands have arrived on the scene to take a piece of the market as well. Fabletics, Gymshark, Athleta and Senita have all created a name for themselves in the evolving athleisure fashion trend.

So, whether you are an athlete, an influencer, a businessman, or a grandma, you might as well embrace the comfort and versatility of athleisure, because there is no sign that it’s going anywhere.

As Derek Thompson puts it:

“…it is hardly an exaggeration to say that all modern fashion is athleisure.”

**Fun Fact: The word “sneaker” allegedly refers to the fact that rubber-soled shoes don’t make as much noise on hard surfaces, which allows their wearers to sneak up on people.**