Sports and Fashion

Nike LunarGlide+ 3

I have done quite well for the past three years in keeping up with constant usage of my Nike trainers which is always a good sign. After signing up to the Reebok Sports Club, I have been a regular at classes from Pilates to Reebok Reps and all sorts of random 'Fit Chick' workouts they have suitably concocted to make their members feel good. Ah... the joys of gymming. But all this time while I was happily wearing my Nike trainers, I have never stopped to consider the business behind sportswear and its intersection with fashion. Have you? 



The reality is that there is a multi-billion dollar industry built around sportswear. The marketing budgets alone run into the millions with expensive ad campaigns (Nike's 'Just Do It') and celebrity endorsements (Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, David Beckham) and competition is in fact very fierce. From my understanding, the pie is carved out among American Nike and German Adidas (and some may argue, emerging Chinese brand Li Ning) as the sports giants rivalling for international dominance, English Reebok (now owned by Adidas) entered the scene later with its focus on aerobics, and German Puma (started by the other Dassler brother, the other of whom founded Adidas) as a more elitist designer brand. You might also add Converse which is arguably more vintage American fashion than sportswear, but which was bought by Nike in 2003 after filing for bankruptcy many times.  


Who would have thought that sportswear would be such a mega industry? After all, how many professional athletes are there and how many people really gym so religiously? Well, the answer actually lies with fashion. The international dominance that Nike for example wields is due to the fact that consumers do not only wear Nike trainers to the gym. Beyond sports purposes, sportswear has globalized to be something worn for leisure, as a fashion statement or status symbol. How did this happen? Some theorize that it all started in the prisons where criminals thrown in jail are forced to surrender their belts and shoelaces which ultimately gave rise to the trend in the early 1990s of laceless sneakers and low-slung jeans. Once picked up by pop culture, this subculture became a worldwide phenomenon and jeans and sneakers became de rigueur for every teenage boy. Of course, subsequent collaborations with fashion and design personalities such as Stella McCartney (Adidas), Jil Sander (Puma) and Philippe Starck (Puma) 'fashionized' sportswear further. And now brands such as Sweaty Betty, a brand focused on stylish designer sportswear that women can wear both to the gym and out, are all the rage in London. 


Yet, there is an insistence by Nike and Adidas that their sportswear is fundamentally about technology and only secondarily about fashion. Try buying a jacket from the Nike website and there is undoubtedly a section explaining the latest technology they have used to produce the jacket. The product names themselves are fancy enough. I mean, what on earth is a LunarGlide+ 3? I was told the shoe was for 'overpronators' (people who run with feet rolled inwards) and provides all the cushion, support and yet breathability that such a runner needs. In fact, I was physically put on a treadmill at the Nike store, had my running recorded and played back to me to convince me that my knees would give way when I am thirty if I continued running without this pair of Nike LunarGlide+ 3. So you see, all this technology that surrounds sportswear is really quite a clever marketing tool. I suppose it is great that sportswear is kept authentic and not washed away by tides of fashion but does Phil Knight really care about authenticity? Perhaps. But beyond that, I think Nike cares when I feel that bit cooler at the gym because I know my trainers have a 'special technology' and from now on swear to wear no other than Nike trainers to the gym. 


So quite unbeknown to the consumer, such is the complex and rather clever world of sportswear. Next time I head to the gym or to a sports shop, I'd be sure to keep my eyes wide open.