ACTIVE IS THE NEW DRESS

Sportswear brands have the key to access the legwear fashion market.

We are all very familiar with the term ‘athleisure’, but lets reiterate for clarity – athleisure is a trend in fashion in which clothing designed for workouts and other athletic activities is worn in other settings, such as at the workplace, at school, or at other casual or social occasions.
According to NPD, Athleisure sales jumped 17 percent to $9.6 billion in 2017, but then the growth in activewear slowed down in 2018, having headlines warning for the “death of athleisure”.
Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst at NPD Group says “While things have slowed up a bit, activewear is still outperforming the fashion market”.

Whether you want to bet on this subcategory for your business growth or not, sports brands are getting more and more involved in the fashion world, with performance features intertwining with formal wear and casual wear.
In fact, for the first time ever, Fila hosted a runway show at Milan Fashion Week SS19, showcasing collections that included womenswear, menswear and footwear.
It should not be a surprise that high heels, tailored suits and skirts made a heavy appearance on their runway, as high fashion pieces infused with sportswear is what today’s consumers want, for business and for play.
Sportswear on the runway is not new – Let’s not forget about fashion veterans Sacai and Virgil Abloh already collaborating with Nike, and Adidas working with fashion designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Stella McCartney.

When talking about athleisure, everyone is mostly referencing apparel, but what does this term mean for socks? From a design stand point, the only notion is of men’s dress socks injected with athletic features, such as arch support, mesh and performance yarns.
Socks in the men’s category like Cole Haan’s Zerogrand are already testing the hybrid design for formal wear and casual wear, while the women’s category has not yet ventured out to the possibility of proposing such socks to the athleisure driven female consumer.

Unisex styling seems to be the response to catering to both markets, like Lacoste’s S/S19 collection, who proposed sport influenced knee-high silhouettes that can transition from business casual to everyday casual – women of course need to borrow from the men’s wardrobe to make this styling work.
Puma’s very feminine approach to athleisure however, has the DEFYxSG collection offering dress heavy socks alongside their leggings and sneakers.

Hosiery brands are caught in the middle, not being able to predict or market towards the consumer’s personal interpretation of athleisure, whether it is from a date to the gym, or from the office to the airport.
What’s the connection? All athleisure interpretations have a common interest to combine activewear and fashion, giving sportswear brands the key to access the legwear fashion market.
Brands like Nike, Adidas, Lacoste and Fila have the possibility to enter the Dress category and disrupt it, by offering runway inspired socks with performance features and benefits.
Athleisure revolves around activewear and active brands now have the credibility to offer dress socks.

The beginning of a new sock category?