Activewear is a growing market in the fashion industry, with many people now wearing it on a daily basis as well as going to the gym. But despite the slightly different uses, the characteristics of design and material stay the same. We specialise in creating bespoke activewear collections, so we thought we’d share our top tips to designing a successful activewear line.
1. Think about your customer. The first thing you have to figure out is who will wear your clothes and what garments will they need? Leggings, shorts, vest, sports bra… the list goes on! We suggest creating a versatile collection that you can mix and match items with to make up a whole outfit, such as a sports bra, leggings and vest.
2. Performance material. Activewear needs to be breathable, stretchy, dry wicking, durable and tear resistant. You might not be able to cover all these characteristics at once, so our advice would be to focus on the ones that are most vital to your collection. Lycra, nylon and polyester are the most common fabrics used.
3. Pockets. Does your collection require pockets? Many activewear collections feature pockets for phones or a space to put your keys. If so, you have to figure out where is the best place to put them; on the side of the leg or inside the waist band?
4. Sizing. Nowadays, there are petite and tall ranges for fashion collections but there’s still a lack of different sizing for activewear. Activewear is arguably stretchier so can accommodate a wider range of sizes, but the length still remains the same. Perhaps designing a collection with different length leggings would be a good move #inclusivity.
5. Style. Performance features are essential for an activewear collection, but this shouldn’t compromise on style as people still have to want to wear it. There’s lots of competition out there, with the likes of Gymshark and MyProtein, but how will you make your range stand out? It can be tempting to copy other successful brands, but this is the worst thing you could do! Take inspiration, but you’ve ultimately go to make yours unit
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