This article explores whether fashion should be a key factor when choosing workout attire, contrasting the needs of professional athletes with those of amateurs. It discusses the mental and financial aspects of workout gear, the role of brand association, and ultimately advises readers to prioritize comfort, affordability, and personal style.
A file picture shows a woman doing a leg workout in New York. Should fashion be a factor in what you wear to workout? Photo: The New York Times Pretty much every serious sports brand is engaged in a technological arms race, busy adding new advances to its workout wear – wicking, padding, springing – all in an effort to convince you that its stuff, and its stuff alone, will make you better at your sport.
While this may be true for professional athletes, who work closely with their uniform sponsors and for whom every second shaved counts – Nike designed a superlight 3D-printed sports bra for runner Faith Kipyegon to help her attempt to break the four-minute mile – it is less important for amateurs.Indeed, when it comes to picking workout gear, or committing to a type of workout gear, the issue for most of us may be more mental than physical. If you feel that you have more power or speed because your shoe or shirt is lighter, you may move as if that is true. And exert yourself as if it is true.There is nothing wrong with that. Pretty much any time I have spoken to serious competitive athletes, they have said that what they wear makes a difference. If they feel good, they perform better. In part this is what is behind the trend among female athletes to finally take control of their own uniforms rather than wearing shrunken versions of men’s looks.The first criteria for amateurs should simply be what feels good and what you can afford. Investment in gear should be calibrated by how serious you are about a sport. Remember all those films about middle-aged people dressed up in the latest sports tech as if they were about to compete in a world championship? They are almost all comedies. Then there’s the question of association. Like fashion brands that sign celebrity ambassadors as a way to woo fans, sports brands connect with star performers to sell you the promise that the tech that made that person a success is going to filter down to you.On a larger scale, sports brands, even more than fashion brands, have become adept at creating communities around their values, so often people think of themselves as “Nike people” or “Adidas people” or “Sketchers people” or even “Chuck II people”.I have often thought there is an anthropological study waiting to be done in gyms that could map sociocultural groups by sports brand. And that doesn’t take into account the antibrand disciplines like climbing, where looking slavishly beholden to a outfitter is like wearing a neon sign that says “not serious”. All of which is to say, if On CloudTec sneakers and NikeSKIMS leggings and Adidas Techfit tops are your jam, mix and match with abandon.Finally, whatever you do, stay away from the sports gear from high-end fashion brands. There may be an element of arch irony in a Louis Vuitton bicycle or Chanel boxing gloves, but that works only in magazine photo shoots, or maybe Gstaad. – ©2026 The New York Times Company/Vanessa FriedmanClimate crisis threatens to wipe out a third of fashion profits, says reportThe sad runway rewind: Fashion is sliding back to ultra-thin idealsWho is Pieter Mulier, the Belgian fashion designer tasked with leading Versace?
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