Good workout clothes are not just about comfort or feel. If you’re looking to enter the workout clothes market or are unsure about consumer preferences, this guide will provide you with professional guidance about good workout clothes in four aspects: fabric, sewing techniques, design and certification. Hope you can find good workout clothes that meet the market demand.
Fabric Technology of Good Workout Clothes
Key Performance Dimensions
Moisture-Wicking: This performance enables the wearer to remain dry and comfortable during exercise. Consumers have extremely high expectations for the functionality of workout clothes. Sweat management is the functional indicator that consumers perceive the most strongly.
If this cannot be achieved, the product will be classified as casual wear, and your workout clothes will lose their premium status in the professional sports market.
Stretch & Recovery: The good workout clothes should be able to accommodate large movements of the body and return to its original shape after stretching without becoming loose or deformed.
Stretch is the primary factor determining whether something can be worn for exercise. Recovery determines how durable the clothes are. They are also the key factor that distinguishes workout clothes from ordinary casual wear, and it is related to your brand image.
Breathability: Breathability refers to the property of a fabric that allows air to pass through, helping the body dissipate heat and reducing the stickiness during exercise.
During summer or high-intensity indoor training, the environmental temperature is already high. It can address the seasonal issue of the product and directly hit the pain point for consumers who are reluctant to wear tight clothes in summer.
Durability: The workout clothes need to withstand frequent stretching, friction and washing. Excellent durability means that the fabric has extremely high resistance to pilling and tear strength.
Durable workout clothes result in less waste, lower resource consumption, and a higher rate of repeat purchases, thus maintaining their high-end appeal over time.
Antimicrobial: Antibacterial treatment protects the fiber structure from damage by microorganisms, helping maintain the fabric’s strength and feel.
The residual sweat can easily breed bacteria and cause unpleasant odors. For those with excessive sweating tendencies, sensitive skin, or those engaged in intense training, antibacterial properties are a must-have. This feature enables you to accurately identify these high-value niche groups.
Fabric Comparison
Polyester: Polyester excels in moisture-wicking, ensuring the wearer stays dry during activities like HIIT and running. Additionally, it has excellent wear resistance, which reduces maintenance costs.
Although it feels a bit rough to the touch and can retain an unpleasant odor after being worn for a long time, it still has a highly competitive cost advantage. It remains the top choice for creating high-quality, cost-effective and durable sports equipment.
Nylon: Nylon, with its outstanding strength and resilience, has become the core fabric for creating high-performance sports equipment. It is soft and smooth in texture, with excellent wear-resistance and shape-retention properties. Even after being washed many times, it can still remain as new.
Its moisture-wicking function is not as good as that of polyester, but it can effectively deal with the light sweating during yoga and jogging, ensuring that the wearer remains dry and comfortable throughout the process.
Although the cost is relatively high, nylon remains an ideal choice for making high-end close-fitting items such as yoga pants, sports bras, and compression garments.
Spandex: Spandex is known as the elastic engine of workout clothes. Although it is rarely used alone, as a key blended component, it can give polyester or nylon fabrics up to 5-8 times greater excellent elasticity and instant rebounding ability.
This characteristic enables the clothing to not only perfectly fit the muscle contours during intense exercise, providing the necessary support, but also ensure that there is no restriction in movement.
It is precisely because of this outstanding conformability and comfort that spandex has become an indispensable essence component for creating close-fitting garments such as leggings and sports bras. The price is reasonable, but it cannot be made into ready-to-wear clothing alone.
Bamboo: By using bamboo fibers, the fabric is endowed with outstanding natural antibacterial properties, smooth texture and breathability. However, pure bamboo fibers have relatively low strength. To ensure the durability and shape stability of the garments, polyester fibers can be mixed in.
Although the price is a bit high, as an environmentally friendly and renewable green material, it not only conforms to the global trend of sustainable procurement, but also is an ideal solution for creating mid-to-high-end yoga clothes and casual workout clothes.
It can help you establish a high-end product line in the fierce market competition by providing excellent skin-contact experience and functionality.
Cotton: Cotton, as a classic natural fabric derived from plants, has gained popularity in the field of casual clothing due to its exceptional softness, breathability, and excellent skin-adhesion.
Although its physical properties such as poor moisture absorption, easy shrinking and easy wrinkling limit its application in high-intensity exercise scenarios, its extremely high cost-effectiveness and comfortable wearing experience enable it to maintain an unshakable market position in non-high-intensity leisure sports and daily summer clothing categories.
It is the preferred base fabric for you that pursue a natural skin-contact experience and cost control.
Merino Wool: Merino wool, derived from the finest natural fibers of sheep, is renowned for its outstanding properties. Its fibers are extremely fine, with a soft texture that is not irritating. It also possesses excellent warmth retention, elasticity and natural antibacterial and deodorizing properties, which can maintain body temperature and provide a comfortable feeling.
Therefore, it has become the preferred choice for outdoor activities and winter clothing, especially suitable for scenarios such as skiing and hiking. However, its high quality also corresponds to a relatively high cost.
Sewing Techniques of Good Workout Clothes
Types of Sewing Technique
4-needle 6-thread flat seam: This sewing technique involves aligning the edges of the fabric using a 4-thread 6-thread structure instead of overlapping the two pieces of fabric, resulting in a smooth stitch.
Overlock: It secures the edges of the fabric, performs hemming and trims the frayed edges, thus providing good elasticity and preventing the fabric from unraveling.
Coverstitch: The main method is to cover the frayed edges with double or multiple needles. On the front side, there are several parallel lines, while on the back side, there is a mesh-like structure like a chain.
Lockstitch flat seam: This sewing method interweaves the threads from top to bottom, and the stitch pattern is neat. Unlike coverstitch, the front and back stitch patterns of lockstitch flat seam are usually the same.
Different Sewing Techniques of Different Parts
The crotch area and the inner thigh area: These areas will be subjected to significant stretching forces during squats, lunges and wide-leg movements, and it will also come into direct contact with the skin. The 4-needle 6-thread flat seam can eliminate friction and maintain over 90% of the fabric’s elasticity.
If your products include compression clothes, yoga pants and swimsuits, it is recommended to use this sewing technique.
Underarm and side seam:These are the areas with high stress during upper limb movements and trunk twisting, and they undergo frequent and extensive stretching. Overlock can prevent edge spreading and has high production efficiency.
Cuffs, waistband and hem: These areas require smooth, non-rolled edges, and they must also remain in close contact with the body as it moves. Coverstitch has excellent elasticity and is very smooth.
Therefore, it is commonly used for the hems, waistbands and cuffs of workout clothes and T-shirts. It is also suitable for elastic fabrics, with a smooth hem that is not prone to fraying.
Pocket seams, garment panel joins, and logo application areas: These areas have high requirements for precision, but the stretching demands are relatively low. Lockstitch flat seam has high precision, but lacks elasticity. It needs to be used in combination with other sewing patterns.
Design and Trend of Good Workout Clothes
The Current Popular Styles
Best-selling categories: Young women are increasingly concerned about their appearance and health, so high-waisted yoga pants, I-shaped vest and sports bras are very popular among this group of people. If your target customers are young women, you might want to focus on promoting these two product categories.
Most teenagers are influenced by street fashion and prefer oversized sports T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts, which not only ensure comfort but also showcase their personal style.
The male group aged 30 to 60 tend to prefer jogging and cycling activities. Therefore, compression shorts and joggers are quite popular among this group.
Functional detail design: In the sport of running, having a side pocket for the phone is very necessary. It is not only for storing the phone but also for keeping some other daily necessities such as keys and tissues. To ensure safety during night running, it is also necessary to design workout clothes with reflective strips.
When doing outdoor sports in summer, it is important to protect yourself from the sun. Therefore, the thumb hole cuffs are a very important design detail. They can fix the cuffs and protect the hands from the sun at the same time.
In women’s workout clothes, the use of adjustable shoulder straps and hidden zipper pockets is both stylish and convenient.
Color Trends
Neutral tones: If your target customer base is wide-ranging and covers a large number of people, it is recommended to choose colors such as black, gray, light beige, and dark blue. These colors are classic and versatile, which results in a low return rate.
Dopamine color: The color of dopamine has been very popular in the past two years, such as bright pink, fluorescent green, and electric blue. If your target customers are relatively young, you can make more use of these colors in your design.
Earth tones: If your main target market consists of middle-aged and elderly people or those who are concerned about environmental protection and sustainable trends, you can use more shades of olive green, terracotta, and khaki to create a high-end series.
Compliance and Certification of Good Workout Clothes
Certification Comparison
OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100: This certification is designed to verify the safety of the final product and ensure it is harmless to humans. It is globally applicable and is also what many schools and sports organizations frequently require.
Bluesign: This is an environmental management system certification that covers the entire supply chain. It not only tests the final products, but also audits the use of chemicals, water resource management, energy consumption and employee safety.
The purpose is for environmental protection and sustainable development. Many high-end environmental protection brands in Europe and America will adopt this certification.
GRS: Like Bluesign, it is an environmental-friendly certification. However, GRS not only verifies and tracks the recycled raw materials throughout the entire supply chain, but also requires that at least 50% of the components must be recycled.
REACH: This certification is stipulated by EU laws and is a mandatory requirement for exports to the EU. It restricts or prohibits the use of SVHC in textiles.
How to Choose the Good Workout Clothes for Your Business
Step 1: Market Research
Before choosing the right workout clothes for your business, it is necessary to conduct research on the target customers and the market, to determine where your workout clothes will be sold and the main consumers. Shift the consumers’ subjective feelings to quantifiable criteria for purchasing decisions.
Step 2: Selecting the Fabric
Then, first choose the type of sports clothing based on the different types of sports. Opt for multi-functional fabrics as the priority. To control costs, the fabric cannot perfectly combine all the performance advantages.
Therefore, it is recommended to select the appropriate two performance features based on the above guidelines when choosing the fabric. This way, it not only takes into account the cost-effectiveness but also helps to create a selling point for the product.
Step 3: Examining the Sewing Technique
Good workout clothes should be made using different sewing techniques for different parts. For instance, the 4-needle 6-thread flat seam is used to eliminate friction, and reinforcement measures are taken at stress points such as the crotch and armpits. The AQL sampling inspection is conducted to ensure the consistency of the workmanship in bulk orders.
Step 4: Verifying the Certification
Compliance certification is an indispensable hard requirement. The OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class II is the minimum standard for any workout clothes that come into contact with the skin. While Bluesign, GRS or REACH compliance rules depend on your target market.
Step 5: Following the Trend
Design and trends also influence the commercial performance of products. Currently, the best-selling items include leggings with side phone pockets, seamless sports bras, and loose-fitting training T-shirts. In terms of color, neutral and earthy tones are more appropriate. However, the style selection should be based on the exercise habits of the consumers.
FAQ
What Is the Expected Lifespan of Good Workout Leggings?
The lifespan of leggings usually ranges from 6 months to 2 years. This time range depends on the frequency of wearing and the intensity of exercise. Wearing it frequently, especially during exercise, will shorten its service life, typically ranging from 6 months to 1 year. If your leggings last 2 months longer than those of others, then your product will be more favored by customers.
Are Shorts or Leggings More Popular for Working Out?
This depends on the type of exercise, the weather conditions and personal preferences. Shorts are a good choice for warm weather or when engaging in vigorous physical activities. Leggings are more versatile and suitable for various exercise methods. It is recommended that you conduct thorough research on your target customers and target market in advance.
What Is the Ideal Fabric Weight for Different Types of Workout Clothes?
There are four types: the lightweight (100 – 160 grams), the medium-lightweight (160 – 220 grams), the medium-heavyweight (220 – 280 grams), and the heavyweight (280 – 400 grams).
The lightweight is suitable for summer, such as high-performance sport shirts, running vests, sports shorts, sun-protective clothing, etc.
The medium-light and medium-heavyweight items are suitable for spring and autumn, such as training T-shirts, or some performance-oriented workout clothes, like sports bras, yoga tops, high-performance leggings.
Heavyweight types are suitable for winter, such as hooded sweaters, sweatshirts, jogging pants, and training wool sweaters.
Final Thoughts
After reading this guide, we believe you will be able to understand what good workout clothes should possess. Goal Sportswear is a professional manufacturer of sports clothing. You can contact us at any time to obtain more relevant information. Goal sportswear is looking forward to cooperating with you!
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