Sportswear: Treading between Demand and Sustainability.

Sportswear demand benefitted from several shifts in trend over the last decade, but the last two years saw tremendous pick up. As work from home became necessary and home fitness became the only option, comfortable athleisure and activewear saw a sharp rise in demand. On the supply side also, the industry saw major shifts over the last decade. An analysis.

Historically sportswear remained a niche for professional sporting community, and outside that, demand came from people who were either fitness junkies or were hitting the gym regularly. It is only recently that apparel genres like athleisure and activewear have taken the market by a storm. Pre-COVID as well, the sportswear demand grew rapidly over the years due to younger consumers preferring to appear sporty and wear comfortable apparel in almost all settings. This led to sportswear companies and fashion brands equally, and sometime s jointly, putting out fashionable sportswear or athleisure or activewear catering to this age group. Products such as yoga pants led the athleisure market, more recently especially, generating demand from the women consumers. The onset of the pandemic put this trend on steroids as working from home became necessary and demand jumped up significantly during the last year after plummeting for a small period in 2020. Notwithstanding the recent demand boom, sportswear demand has been on the rise over the last decade as well. Brands have reacted well to this demand, particularly catering more to women consumers, and have taken actions to rise to the call for sustainability.

Sportswear market saw the largest decline in demand in 2020, after the industry-wide shock from the Global Financial Crisis. Through the previous decade, the demand for sportswear remained strong, which can be gauged from the fact that sportswear imports grew from 2010 to 2018 at an average rate of 4.1%year-on-year. Overall, at the peak of the decade in 2019, sportswear imports grew by 38 per cent from a decade ago in 2010. Demand was predominantly led by United States and European markets, while smaller markets were also gradually gaining market share.