Leggings for workouts? Quintessential! Leggings for the workplace? Groundbreaking! (and not in a Miranda Priestly way).
While choosing our OOTD, one quandary we face is deciding between ‘Fashion over Comfort’ or ‘Comfort over Fashion,’ and that too depends on the occasion we are dressing up for.
The solution to this problem has been Athleisure apparel! It can be worn to yoga, meetings, birthdays, and any other social events you can think of.
But what is it and why is it such a hype? This video will give you a good starting point:
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But What Exactly Is “Athleisure”?
Athleisure is an amalgamation of “Athletics” and “Leisure,” a rather comfortable (and trendy!) oxymoron if you will.
The current hype over Athleisure might make it seem like a new fashion discovery, but only a few know that it has been around since the 19th century. This uber-cool trend took off during the last 50 years when fitness regimes were suddenly the in-thing!
The need for sports attire became a necessity during the 19th century when young people took to the fields to play sports such as tennis, golf, or polo. As such, the United States Rubber Company produced its first ‘tennis shoes’ with rubber soles!
The modern ‘polo shirt’ as we know it was first dubbed a ‘tennis shirt’ and was used by tennis athletes. Over time, the design earned repute, and the polo shirt became a wardrobe staple!
The need for athletic attire arose when bicycles became a thing of craze during the 1890s, prompting the need for a wardrobe that the women could comfortably ride in. Thus, came the shorter skirts and shorts!
With more and more people buying into the fit lifestyle, sports brands started improvising on their clothes to make it better suited for daily athletic lifetyle.
Eventually, newer innovations were made with sweat-wicking, odor-resistant materials like spandex, Lycra, and nylon.
What’s So Cool about Athleisure Wears?
Athleisure wear is fashionable, comfortable, weather-adaptive, and has a myriad of options in colors, sizes, prints, and materials. What more could one want?
Athleisure is a big hit with Millennials and Gen Zs primarily because of its versatility and partly because of the increased awareness of fitness.
Who knew pairing leggings with blazers and boots would be the new (unofficial) workplace dress code? Or a date night outfit?
Currently, the latest Athleisure fashion trend (which is here to stay) has had quite the evolution from being dubbed as ‘lazy,’ ‘informal,’ ‘inappropriate,’ and even scandalous at times to being the most in-thing that it is now.
Global Athleisure Market
Recently, Athleisure has become a market disruptor, and rightfully so. In 2019 alone, Athleisure wears surpassed the global revenue of $414 billion and is expected to rise up to $570 billion by 2023.
Today, Athleisure occupies a fifth of the total clothing and footwear market, according to Global Data, a market research company. North America, in 2019, dominated the Athleisure market by holding 33.7% in the Global Athleisure share.
High-value collaborations like Nike x Matthew Williams and Robert Geller x lululemon that debuted in the New York and Paris Fashion week in 2019 only made the reach of Athleisure expand.
Top Athleisure Trends in 2020
Big celebrities such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Rita Ora and most of the models (while not on the runway) are a big fan of Athleisure and endorse it constantly.
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Celebrity collaboration like Kanye West’s Yeezy deal with adidas, Rihanna’s Puma collaboration, or Beyonce’s IVY PARK x adidas collaboration sell out instantly.
And in terms of style, some of the top athleisure trends that are blowing up some serious steam are:
- Streetwear and unisex athleisure styles
- Oversized t-shirts and sweats
- Luxe fabrics
- Neon and Neutral colors
Most Popular Activewear Brands
Apart from premium brands that held 65% in the Athleisure product segment in 2018 like Nike, Adidas, Underarmour, and Lululemon, some other popular activewear brands are Vimmia, MPG, Zobha, Onzie, Cory Vines, Lorna Jane, Oiselle, Alo, Lolë, and YOGASMOGA among others.
Apart from the material and accessibility, these brands’ popularity can be credited to the social impact of the brand, their inclusivity, and body-positive messaging.
Talking about body positivity, Nike’s plus-size mannequin might have sparked some controversy, but it also ignited a discourse on inclusivity and body positivity.
Content Marketing for Athleisure Wear Brands
Content marketing in Athleisure is a marketing strategy where you create and share fitness and lifestyle content to attract and acquire your target audience.
The main objective is to accelerate profitable consumer action with inspirational fitness content. If you have been following our blog, you know by now the importance of content marketing for your brand.
Some of the ways you can start are by:
1. Settling on the story of your brand, the history. Remember, pathos is quite an effective persuasive tool, and letting your audience know about your brand’s background can be beneficial in establishing a relationship.
An example is the backstory of the brand Adidas, founded by Adolf Dassler, who started building spiked shoes with rubber soles and convinced U.S. Sprinter Jesse Owens to wear it at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
2. Settling on a brand look/theme is an important aspect of content marketing, as having a consistent look of your brand gets the consumers to associate with. For instance, the neutral, nude tones of product packaging remind us of KKW’s beauty brand.
3. Sharing current fashion trends such as ways to styling/pairing your products and putting out fashion content.
4. Increasing customer engagement by featuring your customers in your brand’s social media. For instance, several every day inspirational figures are featured in Nike’s Instagram handle.
5. Engaging local influencers as the brand’s ambassadors.
6. Focusing more on the visual content than the written ones, given your brand is in fashion.
7. Giving a glimpse of your brand and what goes into the production to build a connection with the customers.
8. Being positive in brand messaging and promoting inclusivity and body positivity.
9. Collaborating with popular brands to expand the brand reach.
Content marketing for athleisure brands isn’t all that different from content marketing for fashion companies, especially with the common denominator being ‘fashion.’
You just need to keep in mind that your brand’s messaging and values are being conveyed to your audience in the most tasteful and effective manner, efficiently.
Lifestyle and Fashion Content
Gone were the days when we had to wait for weekly/monthly magazine subscriptions to catch up with the celebrities.
Given the rise of social media, all we have to do now to catch up on all that’s happening with our favorite celebs is to open our phones and see what they’re up to.
Just one click gives us access to what they’re pairing their oversized shirts with, what shoes they’ve opted to wear with their biker shorts (Remember Kim Kardashian with her biker shorts and slouchy boots?), and how comfortably chic they look in their athleisure wardrobe.
Celebrity obsession isn’t going away anytime soon and nor will the demand for lifestyle and fashion content, especially now that people are constantly trying to evolve into a healthier, fitter, and more fashionable version of themselves.
Fashion Content Marketing Agency
Now that we’ve established the importance of content marketing for your brand and discussed some of the ways to do so effectively, you might want to consider hiring a fashion content marketing agency for producing consistent, high-quality content for your brands.
You just need to provide them with your products, and they can help provide quality content to share with your customers.
Happy Content Marketing!
Header Image Source: Photo by Tom Roberts on Unsplash
How did you like May Thawdar Oo’s blog post “Fashion with Comfort – Living the Athleisure Life!”? Let us know in the comments if you have anything to add, have another content idea for beauty content marketing blog posts, or just want to say “hello.” 🙂
