Rise of ‘athleisure’ threatens to put jeans out of fashion

Do you remember buying your first pair of jeans? For many of us, it was an adolescent rite of passage. I sat in a hot bath to mould mine to my skinny teenage legs. Breaking them in could often take months. But it was worth it.

Think James Dean wearing Lee in Rebel Without a Cause, or Marilyn Monroe in Levi’s for The Misfits. Jeans were a statement of freedom and individuality. They weren’t so much a choice as a necessity. Denim was part of growing up.

Perhaps not any more.

It would have been unthinkable a decade ago, but there’s a new generation of twentysomethings who might never own a pair of jeans. In the same way this new breed has swapped TV for Netflix and real-world chat for online, they’re ditching good old-fashioned denim in favour of yoga pants and joggers. It’s all part of the huge growth in so-called “athleisure” – a phenomenon that’s gripped the US and is fast taking hold here too.

Put simply, ath-lee-jure (as the Americans call it) is comfortable sportswear that’s moved from the gym to the street to the office. It’s popularised by brands like Lululemon in the US and Sweaty Betty in the UK, and given global profile by celebs such as Beyoncé and Kanye West, both of whom have developed their own lines.

When it first took off, the big three in jeans – Levi’s, Lee and Wrangler – dismissed it as a fad. But the mood has now changed and senior bosses are getting edgy. Sean Gormley, creative director at Wrangler, is one of them. “It’s a big deal and it’s very real. It’s re-energised the whole sportswear look and it’s definitely a threat,” he says.

Some might say it’s more than a threat. In the US, denim has already lost its swagger, with jeans sales dipping 8% last year according to market research group NPD. Data group Euromonitor says global sales were up only 2% last year across the world’s 10 biggest clothing markets, the weakest performance in a decade.

 

“Leggings have replaced jeans as the must-have in the wardrobe. It might not be as big in the UK as the US yet, but it’s getting there,” says Marshall Cohen, NPD’s chief retail analyst.

Cohen says, in total, sales of athleisure rose 17% in the US over the past 12 months to $41bn. “For every pair of jeans they’re not buying, they’re buying two pairs of leggings,” he says.

A fact not lost on Wrangler. Its creatives are currently in Barcelona – about to shoot the brand’s 2016 summer ad campaign. It features a new “Active Ready” line of denim with specially designed fibres that add more stretch and movement.

“There’s always a new kid on the block, but denim is good at innovating itself out of corners,” Gormley says. “I believe that’s what’s going to happen with this latest trend.”

At least, that what he hopes, because in the past the industry’s attempts at pricier stretch denim haven’t worked. “Customers ended up with a baggy knee or a saggy bum,” Gormley admits.

But the next generation of “stretch”, he believes, will resolve that problem. “We will be launching a knitted fabric for women with 100% stretch in all directions. That’s closer to what you see in the athleisure world,” he says.

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