Although sports and leisure as a concept is not new, it is becoming popular - and to a large extent a trend. Although big brands such as Nike, Lululemon, Reebok and Gap (and more brands) have been heavily inclined to this evolving trend.
Sports and leisure sports are at the intersection of several Covid-19 acceleration trends. First, turn to a highly engaged online fitness community. As fitness moves to the home, more and more people find themselves wearing jogging shoes and running shoes because they are not only exercising, but also in daily life.
In a locked-in environment, online fitness communities are receiving more and more attention, and priority is given to shifting to outdoor activities and comfort at home. From a fitness and activity perspective, applications such as Strava, Pearlit, Aaptiv, Nike Run Club, Fiit, and Peloton Digital gather highly engaged users on one platform. These highly engaged users subsequently become the target of large retail brands because they hope to find a concentrated consumer group with disposable income and who like to spend on fitness-related products.
In February, Elixir consultant partner Karina van den Oever stated that consumers want to shift from fast fashion to more durable types of clothing.
"Sports and leisure is one of the few flexible categories during the pandemic. However, as the lockdown continues, consumers are moving away from fast-fashion sports and leisure and looking to invest in longer-lasting performance apparel."
For the fitness community, there are strong network effects at work. These networks, or rather, community-based products, cultivate a sense of belonging and participation as a flywheel. As the network develops and strengthens, members become more willing to pay for quality products.
In addition, the extension of sports and leisure transformation can be seen in the luxury goods sector. Technical sportswear-defined as "clothing that focuses on functionality rather than aesthetics, such as sportswear"-is very popular in the luxury retail market. Consumers are paying more and more attention to the status of technical sportswear and sportswear in the value chain.
For example, the recently listed Swiss brand On Running's CloudX sneakers ranked ninth in the fourth quarter of 2020 on the fashion search engine Lists Hottest Men's Items. Technology running shoes are the first products of its kind on the list.
According to its CEO Casper Cosetti, before the IPO, On Running ("On") has always been a technology brand for runners. However, in the last year, as more and more consumers started running, it has covered a wider range of non-professional audiences. According to Vogue Business, On's current first iteration of the regular Run Your Local Mountain challenge has 140,000 registrations on Strava.
Since the fourth quarter of 2020, so far, every Lyst Index quarterly report has technical sportswear products.
Observed trends indicate that the transformation of functional clothing has not only penetrated into the wider consumer market, but also into the historically "hard to reach" luxury goods market. Due to pandemic-driven factors, existing brands are actively seeking to enter this field.
For example, Victoria Beckham has continued to collaborate with Reebok in 2019. According to an interview with Vogue Business, “The pandemic has expanded the appetite for sportswear and we continue to see increasing demand for these products,” she said. "Our goal is to combine performance with elegant aesthetics. We have been receiving a good response from the highly involved VB x Reebok community."
Functional clothing, more specifically, tactical clothing, has now entered the luxury fashion industry. According to Fitt Insider, this year Japanese fashion brand Comme des Garçons and outdoor professional shoe manufacturer Salomon also launched a new platform sneaker. In addition, German designer Jil Sander collaborated with Arc'teryx to release a high-end fashion tactical equipment capsule this year.
Thanks to Fitt Insider for providing more contextual figures:
Industry giants are getting involved in technology sportswear, not just choosing outdoor looks-they are making beautiful, durable clothing. Although there are opportunities to combine tactics and luxury, there are larger trends at play. As the sports and leisure market continues to grow, economic and social factors drive more mobile work in the home environment, and existing companies continue to build their own casual sportswear series, we expect further innovation in this field.
So, how big is the sports and leisure market? According to Grandview Research, by 2028, the sports and leisure market is expected to grow to US$549 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%. In terms of context, during the forecast period, the functional food and beverage space is expected to reach 529 billion U.S. dollars, while the global virtual event space is expected to reach 509 billion U.S. dollars.
The market has clearly shown that different groups of people have demand for sports and casual wear. With the emergence of new brands and existing retailers starting to build their own sportswear and sports and leisure brands, public companies and private companies are investing in this area. From the perspective of the private market, investors who usually avoid e-commerce and apparel have made some considerable investments in this field.
Traditionally, fitness apparel will not be considered as a growth investment category. However, this has not prevented leading brands from obtaining high valuations and considerable valuations. Some notable deals:
Financing rounds and valuations are not the only indicators that are currently high. The S&P Retail Apparel Brand Composite Index and SPDR S&P Retail Index* both hit record highs, rebounding more than 65% and 83%, respectively. Although the entire market has also risen during this period, industry-specific indexes have outperformed the broader market.
Although open market agents do not end for market health, they provide a good background for whether an industry is largely supported or whether only a few companies in the field represent the largest share of market value. From the perspective of consumer discretion, the industry seems to be in a favorable position relative to the broader market.
In essence, the market should be able to support this trend forward.
Private companies are not the only ones enjoying this kind of fun. Throughout 2021, we will see various large retailers and brands continue to vigorously enter the retail e-commerce and sports and leisure sectors. Brands such as Target, Dicks, Reebok, LVMH and Gap have all played a role in this area.
The brand clearly values athletes and comfort-oriented sportswear. These actions represent a major capital commitment to establish trends that they believe are sustainable. Even with the expected growth in the future, the current market is ready to support emerging brands.
Take sportswear sales as an example. According to NPD data, the sportswear market accounted for 40% of all online sales last year. In addition, men's sportswear accounted for 45% of the entire men's clothing market in 2020, compared with 39% in 2019.
Looking ahead, it may be beneficial to understand brands that currently find themselves at the intersection of sportswear and conscious comfort. These brands are likely to become potential acquisition targets for large retailers or potential existing companies to enter the growing market. Professional running, adventure wear, glf, tennis and tactical workout clothes are just a small part of the recent shift to comfort and functionality.
E-commerce, social commerce and mobile commerce are all important driving forces for the proliferation of new and old brands. Many of the companies listed above find themselves at the intersection of two trends, both of which have large amounts of money behind them. Digital commerce and brands (both mature and emerging) establishing the infrastructure of the vertical field of sports leisure and luxury comfort clothing may be a sign of future development.
As mentioned earlier, the luxury health economy is booming. Health has evolved from a niche to a mainstream because people see it as a status symbol of physical and mental health. Wellness has evolved from an isolated lifestyle choice to a new status symbol and expression of personal values, covering all fields-from luxury travel to exclusive beauty and high-end fitness.
As people buy comfortable and practical clothing at home, a new trend has emerged. As clothing gains new practicality, Athflow-defined as the fusion of sports leisure and elegance-has become more and more popular. According to a business report by Pinterest, searches for various terms related to Athflow have soared in the past 18 months.
At the end of 2020, the term athflow has become more and more popular, and as the category goes from a freshman to a relatively mainstream, the search volume on Google has increased exponentially. From 2020 to 2021, the relative search interest of the term "athflow" increased to the highest level (an increase of 100%).
For consumers, the utility of trends is attraction. Refinery29 is a female-centric digital editing website that describes this trend as "[P] Professional enough, suitable for working at home, flexible enough for yoga mats, suitable for sofa use", looking forward to "flowy pants, casual jumpsuits" And oversized clothing", "replace sportswear as the new homewear."
Refinery29 identified the leading existing brands as Uniqlo, PRISM and Nike, St. Agni and Vince. These companies have captured the spirit of combining the "sports atmosphere" with comfortable cashmere and merino wool aesthetics.
"Think of ballet-style pumps and wrap-around cardigans, technical jackets like the fishtail parka, and elastic leggings and oversized jumpsuits."
Athflow is a logical continuation of the trends we have seen, not only because of the established demand for comfort and sports and leisure, but also because the pandemic has accelerated new trends. The new style reflects the current mood and a greater sense of fashion.
Taking the theme of sports leisure and sportswear one step further-let's take a look at the latest trends in smart clothing and the application of biosensors, interwoven circuits and other forms of hardware that shape the electronic textile market.
WHOOP (attention to our attention):
In the September product announcement, the wearable technology company Whoop announced the launch of Whoop 4.0 bracelets and sensors. Although Apple-style product launches focused on new software product features and new supercharged chips, new product features were also mentioned.
In order to provide consumers with more choices, Whoop has entered the field of smart clothing. The new 4.0 sensor has been redesigned to connect to the new Whoop brand clothing line.
Smart clothing has been difficult to gain attention before. However, Whoop believes that it combines continuous health monitoring and the new "Any-Wear" technology to be able to determine the body part you wear Whoop and adjust your data tracking accordingly, which will make it stand out in the market. The ability to track biometric data will no longer require sensors to be placed on your wrist or biceps-making Whoop 4.0 more practical than ever.
"We have always believed that wearable technology should be cool or invisible. These are the only two paradigms we want to develop. As far as "cool" is concerned, this is an area that we have focused on in history, making it possible for you Dress up or dress up things. But'invisibility' is,'How do we make it disappear?'"
Since the first well-known smart clothing Reima Cyberia life jacket in 2000, smart clothing technology has made great progress. Reima Cyberia life jackets are aimed at professionals working in Arctic conditions. The suit is equipped with sensors to monitor the user's indicators, equipped with sensors to track heart rate, temperature, humidity and location.
Since then, due to the development of sensor miniaturization, more reliable and efficient power and storage capacity, smart wear and clothing have been significantly improved. Like other devices, smart clothing is on the cusp of major changes. In the next 5 to 10 years, more textiles may enter the market, using battery-free sensor networks to continuously monitor the health of users, and will overturn the traditionally independent clothing and electronics industries.
According to market observations, the smart clothing market will grow from USD 1.6 billion in 2020 to approximately USD 11 billion in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 26.2%. In addition to Market Watch, data from Mordor Intelligence, Grandview Research and MarketsandMarkets show that the growth rate between 2020 and 2025 is about 25%.
So far, both public companies and private financing rounds have helped to accelerate the growth and technology in this field. These include but are not limited to:
Current applications are heavily biased towards fitness and healthcare monitoring. An application that may lead to a wider consumer conversion is an application such as the Google x Levi's collaboration, which allows users to conduct daily life more seamlessly through integrated technology.
Although sports leisure and luxury are the trends we are observing, smart clothing has a longer way to go. Adoption has not yet started, and applications are still restricted. However, it is worth noting that the major technology companies attach great importance to this technology. Google, Apple and Samsung currently have patents related to wearable technology.
With the continuous advancement of sensors and smart textiles, so will smart clothing. As society gets closer to a world where wires and sensors can be seamlessly integrated into your everyday clothing, the information generated will become more useful and usable.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Yoel Fink, a professor of materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, described a world in which smart clothing may affect the way we make daily decisions.
"Imagine all the biochemical substances expelled from your body and released into the clothes. Today, all these things are wiped off in the washing machine. But at some point, your fabric can learn, listen to subtle changes, and remind You go to the doctor for an examination," said Jolfink, a professor of materials science at MIT. "It changes our perception of healthcare. But first, we need fibers that we know will get better over time."
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