Chief Marketing Officer at Launchmetrics, the leading Brand Performance Cloud in Fashion, Luxury and Beauty

The sportswear industry is clearly a winner in 2021 as consumers continue to spend time at home exercising and seeking comfort in trying times.

Although the fashion industry struggled last year, it seems that activewear and athleisure brands flourished more than ever. With the majority of business meetings taking place in front of a notebook at home, leggings, sweatpants and loungewear have quickly become inherent pieces of our professional wardrobes. According to Statista, the U.S. sports apparel market was valued at $105.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $113.4 billion in 2021.

True Fit’s Fashion Genome (via Direct Commerce), which analyzes data from 17,000 brands and 180 million True Fit users, confirms that athleisure orders jumped 84% since the start of the pandemic; in the U.K. alone, sales of women's athleisure bottoms were five times higher in December 2020 than they were in April 2020. And order volumes for men's athleisure clothing sales were 20% higher than in 2019. American retailer Target reportedly reached $1 billion in sales for its activewear line, All in Motion, which had only just launched before the pandemic. According to the market research company Allied Market Research, the global activewear industry is expected to reach a value of nearly $547 billion by 2024.

That being said, this trend is not really new. I believe the '90s, which many see as a decade that shaped extraordinary music culture, have served as fashion inspiration for today’s trends: White sneakers, long dresses, hoodies and baseball caps were as cool back then as they are now.

People have questioned dress codes since the beginning of the pandemic. I believe we've reached a point of no return as more and more people not only spend their time at home exercising — self-care is a trend too, according to an article by Hamutal Scheiber— but also spending their money on clothes that are simply multi-seasonal and multifunctional. Even the influencer landscape has been an indication of the rise of athleisure. According to my company's research, the top two placements for Nike during the first quarter of 2020 were two Instagram posts from Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, which generated over $4.12 million in Media Impact Value™ (a monetary representation of brand performance). One of them was related to Nike’s Living Room Cup, and the other announced the launch of the new CR7 football cleats.

Ronaldo and Serena Williams, athletes who are well-known far outside of stadiums and tennis, have become some of the new role models for the healthy, active lifestyle that many are keen to follow. Brands often work directly with individual athletes as influencers. Many athletes are able to create quality content that also makes products look relevant to consumers.

In the latest Launchmetrics report, we analyzed the performance of athleisure over the entire year of 2020, as well as some of the trends to look out for in 2021. We evaluated 10 top players in the industry, including Nike, Reebok, Puma, Lululemon and Fila. While their performance and their Voice Mix remain different, we saw a clear tendency for their Media Impact Value™ to continually increase compared to the previous year. While Nike, Puma and Reebok generated 15% more Media Impact Value™ than in 2019, New Balance's increased by 70%, followed by Gymshark (+34% YoY) and Lululemon (+22%).

In addition, our data detected some key trends:

• Sustainability, a long-time trend in fashion, has also arrived in the athleisure market. We found that consumers continue to discover and invest in new products with sustainable, durable and high-quality materials; many brands are looking to bridge the gap between fashion and innovative-functional designs.

• Diversity and inclusivity are part of the business. By offering clothes for women of all shapes and sizes, athleisure brands can secure their place in clients’ hearts.

• Luxury brands may see a new business opportunity to gain market share. From Gucci to Stella McCartney, designers have been entering the market, and I believe they will continue to either create their own performance lines or partner with other activewear brands to launch limited collections.

• On-demand classes are now communities. Athleisure brands such as Lululemon (with its yoga videos) and Alo Yoga (with its Alo Moves service) have become more inventive and developed on-demand offerings to bring yoga, fitness and wellness classes to their customers' homes and build new communities for like-minded fans.

I believe all of this will become key in informing the strategy that brands will have to adopt in order to cater to the new reality and needs of their consumers. What has become increasingly clear to me is that consumers choose brands that reflect their personal values, as illustrated in a 2020 IBM report. It is no longer enough for brands to create a functional or even aesthetically appealing product — many consumers expect them to be part of the debate and to speak up on social and political issues. More than ever, marketers should consider making socio-political engagement a part of their ethos.

More importantly, in order to make sure their message reaches the right audience, brands need to use the right voice for the right channel. This means not only choosing relevant influencers and media outlets to partner with but also being very specific about the channels they choose. Brands should also be more conscious of engaging with location-specific channels their audiences use, such as Chinese social media platforms like Douyin or Weibo. It's crucial to make sure your brand knows how to speak to the local customer to drive brand performance.

Narratives and storytelling are very important for brands, and while authenticity is important, you should also allow consumers to be a part of your brand story. Relating to the brand and its values can cultivate a sense of brand loyalty and create a long-term relationship between the brand and the consumer.

Ultimately, I believe brand performance will continue to thrive around those who understand their goals and leverage the right voices to reach the right consumers on the right channels in order to achieve their objectives and communicate their brand values.

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