Athleisure – the term for athletic clothing to wear when running daily activities. Consumers look for comfort in their everyday apparel, and retailers were quick to respond with private labels and less expensive versions of name brands counterparts. Gone are the days when you would only wear workout clothes when participating in some sort of sporting activity or workout. But are the days also gone where the athleisure trend is as popular as it once was?
The industry sees “saturation in a market estimated by research firm NPD Group at $44 billion in the U.S. alone. That should be of concern to apparel makers, because activewear has been a rare bright spot in an otherwise sluggish clothing industry. Activewear sales increased by 16 percent in 2015 from the year before, compared to a 2 percent year-over-year rise in total apparel sales, according to NPD. Stripping out the category, total clothing sales would have declined by 2 percent, NPD said.
