Technical Athleisure Is A New Trend Amongst Luxury Sportswear Brands

We all know the pandemic has had a major impact on the fitness industry minimizing most forms of outdoor workouts and replacing it with the idea of having an indoor fitness routine. While this has been a huge change for consumers, what has also changed is their preferences for sportswear.

While initially the demand for fast fashion brands was extremely high, today consumers are more concerned about the durability and quality of the brand they choose to buy from. With many people joining online fitness communities like Nike Run Club, Strava and Fiit, technical athleisure is an aspect that luxury brands must now explore.

Since gyms and fitness spaces were under imposed restrictions, consumers looked at online communities that could help them with a workout regimen even through lockdowns. These digital applications not only helped people work around the newly imposed rules and restrictions but also resulted in forming a whole new niche for workout equipment, fitness wear and athleisure apparel.
Some aspects that initiated this transformation from fast fashion athletic wear to long-lasting performance wear are the concept of online digital communities that have not only brought fitness enthusiast from across the world on to a single platform but also encourage and promote a healthy lifestyle while following regulations.

Online Fitness Communities

The growing demand of fitness applications like Nike and Strava that enables people to track their running, cycling and other outdoor activities has become immensely popular amongst the masses especially through the last year.

With over 74 million users on Strava who share their fitness metrics online, the director of marketing Simon Klima has noted how the application is attracting nearly 2 million users every month. People usually like to follow their friends and leave a comment on social media. This has enhanced Strava’s performance and made it the most eligible application amongst the youth.

Popular athletic wear brand Lululemon has one of the biggest clubs on Strava with over 100,000 members. Their social media move and stay challenge saw a huge customer engagement with over 300,000 people tracking their workouts on the Strava app. It has become the perfect platform to combine friends, workouts and digital communities.

Technical Athleisure is The New Luxury

Nike launched its very first dedicated application towards fitness called Nike Run Club (NRC) that saw 100 million users across the first 12 months of its launch. The app successfully links all in-app purchases and offers exclusive discounts on Nike products and apparel.

For young customers, the perception of Nike as a brand is just as it would be for an actual luxury brand because of the great service and features the brand has inculcated across various touchpoints. It is no less than a high-end brand that fits into a different type of luxury.

For the most part, luxury brands have steered clear of technical athlete wear but now with this persistent change in the market, we can predict more luxury brands to offers products under this category from Winter/Autumn 2021 onwards.

Victoria Beckham recently launched a collaboration collection with Reebok that features a timeless range of athleisure wear that ensures durability, elevated aesthetic and performance. The VB X Reebook community looks to bridging the gap between brands to deliver truly performance-driven products that match with customer requirements.

Apparel is the new booming industry that brings with itself a huge scope of growth in the coming times. Fitness app fiit has seen an overall 700% growth in the past year and is in talks with multiple brands at the moment to develop a fitness wear range.

With the conception of luxury brands into this new space, high-income consumers as well as fitness enthusiast will definitely tap in to this niche market, which is predicted to boom and grow even post-pandemic, as per statistics.