Apparel Online India Magazine May 1-15, 2019 | Page 11

WORLD WRAP
In 2014, teenagers began to prefer
leggings over jeans. Then people
started wearing athletic clothing (or
athleisure, but it’s mostly just yoga
pants) to run errands. Now they’re
wearing yoga pants to the office. The
US imports of women’s elastic knit
pants last year surpassed those of
jeans for the first time ever, according
to the US Census Bureau.
Threat to denims?
Fashion trends change constantly,
but rarely does an entire category
shift. Over four decades, rubber-soled
sneakers gave way to basketball
shoes, which in turn fell to trainers.
Boxer briefs didn’t exist 25 years
ago; drawers were still filled with
plain old briefs. But now the hybrid
is America’s most popular men’s
underwear. Yoga pants have similarly
managed to dive denim deep into an
existential crisis, threatening Levi
Strauss & Co. so deeply that it had
to scramble to adapt. The company
added stretch and contouring to its
jeans, while now hoping to retain
some of its rugged essence.
The popularity of yoga pants
has, predictably, led to a flood of
competitors as brands fill every
market segment, from Old Navy’s US
$ 20 pants to Lucas Hugh’s US $ 230
versions. Lululemon Athletica, which
is largely credited for bringing
stretchy pants to the masses, has
poured money into developing new
fabrics to fend off rivals – a pack
that now includes the world’s biggest
athletics companies.
ESSENTIALS
What was once a simple stretchy
legging, it seems, has now become
an engineering marvel. Not too
surprising, though, when you realise
that about US $ 48 billion is being
spent on activewear in the US every
year. The biggest businesses now in
the athleticwear space have invested
heavily in growing their womenswear
lines, especially for developing new
fabrics and features for the once-
simple yoga pant. Active bottoms and
leggings currently is a US $ one billion
industry, according to NPD Group
Analyst Marshal Cohen.
Where Lululemon found success with
female consumers by providing a
Yoga pants
have similarly
managed to dive
denim deep into
an existential
crisis, threatening
Levi Strauss & Co.
so deeply that it
had to scramble
to adapt.
niche product that could satisfy casual
and active uses, major brands such
as Adidas and Nike completed the
picture, confirming just how strong the
athleisure trend could be. According to
data from retail research firm Edited,
there are more than 11,000 kinds of
yoga-specific pants available these
days with retailers worldwide across
both men’s and women’s apparel.
The leading companies that are
catering to this market are Lululemon;
Lucy; Elektrix; Champion; Noli Yoga;
90 Degree; easyoga; Sunyoga; Nike;
Adidas; American Apparel; Forever
21; Gap; Under Armour; Beyond
Yoga; Onzie; teeki; Merrithew; prAna;
TriMax Sports and YogaDirect.
Similarly, the US and India hold a
major share in the yoga market and
the other countries that are following
suit are Canada, Singapore, Australia.
Factors such as the manufacturing of
innovative yoga apparel with respect
to technology and features and
growing number of yoga practitioners
will provide considerable growth
opportunities to yoga apparel
manufacturers in future.
www.apparelresources.com | MAY 1-15, 2019 | Apparel Online India
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