If fashion were a Spice Girl today, it would definitely be Sporty Spice. We will tell you why athleisure has gone from being a tendency to be practically normal.

Let&#39;s start with one question: among all the clothing categories, which is the most valuable brand in the market today? Surprisingly (or perhaps not so much) the answer is Nike, a firm that was born of the passion for the athletics of the American Phil Knight and that has leaned more and more towards the territory of fashion. Proof of this was the show in which it presented its recent innovations in the framework of the Paris Fashion Week last month.

Undoubtedly, athleisure is one of the trends that has defined the history of fashion in recent years.&nbsp;

The rise of this trend has to do with the union of two social phenomena that we have experienced in the last decades. The first of these is the fixation that 2000 brought with well-being and fitness as a way of life. This has resulted in new diets, fitness influencers, toast avocado, acai bowls, matcha lattes, runners, spartan racers, power yogis, etc.

Fashion inevitably joined (think that yoga started five thousand years ago and Lululemon only 21 years ago) and, at the same time, created a code of belonging to this lifestyle, in which wearing sportswear makes you a member of an implicit wellness club in which health is a priority, but it is also a fad.

On the other hand, the second social trend that has made athleisure more popular is the decline of formal clothing in general, and that has made consumers more inclined to wear comfortable clothing on the condition that it is functional.

In many places, the uniforms have been left behind and today individuality is promoted more; Many offices have changed their dress code, and although you may not be able to go leggings and top to work, seeing so many tennis courts in the corridors of the offices is a great triumph of athleisure.

Today sports brands have grown 33%, and this competition has entered other traditionally were not in this category.

We have seen luxury sneakers by Balenciaga, Gucci, Alexander McQueen, or brands that have been found in the middle with other designers: Nike and Riccardo Tisci, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Reebok or Raf Simons and Adidas.

One of the categories where this trend has manifested most is in the top and leggings sets for yoga, which are reported to be the best-seller of 2018 in neutral tones, and whose inventory forecasts an increase of 87% this year in brands such as Nike, Puma or Reebok, according to EDITED, the retail analytics agency.

The most surprising thing is that the data shows that this type of tops is displacing in sales to the traditional lingerie bras, a competition in which comfort certainly has many points in its favor.

In addition, athletic wear can easily be one of the most inclusive categories in terms of the variety of sizes, since, at least in the female category, the runs of sizes of various brands reach a little beyond 14 - average height in United States-, and that many brands of ready-to-wear and even lingerie, decide to ignore. For now, 2019 aims to be according to trends the year of bikers type cyclist.

Only last year, from April to September, the variety of bikers in stores was quadrupled, according to EDITED and we have already seen them in the collections of Fendi, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Herm&egrave;s, Thierry Mugler, Stella McCartney, among many others.

&laquo;Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life, so you bought some sweatpants, &quot;says one of the most memorable maxims of the recently deceased Fashion Kaiser. However, this very fact that shook the industry earlier this year, could mean the end of an era where there was no place for style in athletic wear and the beginning of a time when we preferred clothes that have a purpose.

This time buying pants does not mean that, as Lagerfeld stated, you gave up, but an affirmation of appreciation and celebration for your body.

Sports is the new black

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