Personalised sportswear and fashionable gym clothes are becoming more and more popular as more and more people are getting into the “athleisure” trend. Haven’t heard of it? Even if you’re a little behind on what’s hot and what’s not, it’s pretty likely that you’ve seen a rise in the amount of people, probably between the ages of 16 and 35, sporting figure-hugging, stylish fitness clothing, even though they don’t appear to be playing any kind of sport, or indeed coming from the gym. This is athleisure wear; fashionable sports clothing that can be worn to work, the gym and the pub and will still have you looking good even with a red face and sweat patches…or a briefcase in hand.
Fashionable sportswear has never been as popular as it is now. With the market now being worth a whopping £7bn in the UK, athleisure sales have grown enormously in the last seven years, by 42% in fact, and appear to continue doing so. It is even giving the nineties a run for their money with a host of celebrities endorsing, or indeed launching, their own sportswear lines and brands.
Women’s sportswear in particular has been catapulted into the forefront of the clothing industry, propelled by the Instagram-led cult around the “hip and healthy” trend of posting pics of your leggings and a freshly squeezed green smoothie or an avocado based snack. In fact, there are now almost 400,000 public posts with the #athleisure hashtag.
For this very reason, high street brands such as Topshop, M&S and H&M have had to get with the times and begin offering products, or indeed entire clothing lines, that fit with the athleisure trend. Furthermore, slogan workout clothes in the form of crop tops, sublimation leggings and printed T Shirts are this summer’s must have, meaning that if your clothing outlet isn’t stocking personalised sportswear, you’re going to miss out on your slice of the athleisure cake.
Who’s promoting and producing personalised sportswear and athleisure wear?
Nowadays, just about every celebrity who has any kind of following is sporting athleisure wear. Afterall, with such a breadth of brands offering high quality, attractive and flattering sports clothing and gym wear, who’d be caught dead papped post-workout in an old baggy grey T-Shirt and jogging bottoms? No one, is the answer. Models such as Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin and Gigi Hadid are key athleisure wearers, combining bomber and leather jackets with sports bras and yoga pants or leggings.
Acclaimed New York designer, Alexander Wang showcased his first collaboration with German Sportswear giant, Adidas at last year’s New York Fashion Week. It featured various unisex styles across sweatshirts, hoodies, T-shirts, and footwear, and he has since continued to collaborate with the brand, dropping new products every few months. His personalised Adidas sportswear features an upside down version of the Adidas Originals logo.
As mentioned above, high street shop’s sales took a hit in light of this trend in fashionable sportswear, and have since tried to recuperate their place on the stage by collaborating with sportswear brands and celebrities or by producing their own personalised sportswear lines complete with printed slogan T Shirts, dye sublimation lycra leggings and custom baseball caps. A prime example of this is Topshop’s collaboration with Beyoncé on its Ivy Park athletic wear collection, which unites technical sportswear with fashion-led casualwear.
If you work in retail and fashion clothing and want to extend or create an athleisure line of printed sportswear on some of the most popular sports brands right now, get in touch with Garment Printing. We work closely with a range of suppliers, including Adidas, Nike and American Apparel, allowing you to personalise sportswear to your taste and branding needs.
Not sure which printing technique to opt for? No problem, we have many to choose from and our printing experts will advise you on the right one for the product selected. Dye sublimation, transfer printing and cad-cut vinyl printing are all excellent choices when printing your personalised sportswear.
Dye sublimation gives great results on synthetic fabrics and will allow you to play around with cool effects, like the one in this image.
Our Sportswear Brands and Suppliers
Adidas
Adidas is a globally known sports brand with an excellent reputation for producing high quality, fashionable sports and fitness clothing, making it the perfect brand for your athleisure or personalised fitness clothing range.
The clothing from Adidas’ ClimaCool and Climalite range are equipped with expert technology that performs alongside you on the course, the pitch or the court, keeping you fresh and comfortable throughout. The Coolmax® Extreme fabric is one of the fastest drying garment fabrications available, making any garment from this range a top choice for personalised sportswear.
American Apparel
‘Globally sourced, Locally made, Sweatshop free’ is American Apparel’s slogan. Starting as a small wholesale business in North Carolina that provided “the best American-made T Shirts at an affordable price,” it transformed itself into a huge manufacturer of basic apparel, socks and legwear, setting up shops all around the world. This brand has become popular for fitness, yoga and dance centres, as well as being a key player in the athleisure trend, as what American Apparel supply are basic, well-made garments such as leggings, legwarmers and leotards that give you ease of mobility, comfort and style.
Nike
Nike is a global sporting goods designer and manufacturer with over 50 years in the industry. As well as all types of sports and fitness clothing, they also offer sports accessories such as water bottles, gym bags and caps. They have a large variety of products for every sport, including golf, basketball, football, tennis and running – and the best thing is, we can personalise all of it!
Nike’s sportswear is made of sweat-wicking Dri-FIT technology that allows air to pass through the fabric, keeping you dry, cool and comfortable when playing your preferred sport.
