Sport goes fashion only partly true

The fusion between sport and fashion has been happening for a while now: while sport collections are becoming increasingly fashionable, fashion almost cannot do without function any more. Structural problems that still divide both worlds and they are turning out to be persistent.

"We are still completely functional"

Especially in the winter season, the tendency toward fashion is unmistakable as Ispo Munich has shown unmistakably. More than ever, classic winter sports brands feel the need to compensate the absence of snow through new incentives. That means for most of them to include more fashion in their collections. Scandinavian brands like Peak Performance and 66°North managed the balancing act between technical outerwear and casual lifestyle casual in their home markets early on. Outdoor brands like Arc’Teryx, Vaude and Patagonia have also expanded their lifestyle collections over the last few seasons. Odlo, headed since 2012 by former Peak Performance chief executive Jonas Ottosson, shed the slightly outdated image of functional innerwear in the last few seasons. "We are still completely functional,“ said Odlo's Matteo Twerenbold, "but it can be beautiful too!“

Even Mountain Force, so far strictly a premium ski brand, wants to offer more casual articles in the future apart from ski outfits. "This way, we and our retailers can bridge the gap when there is no snow,” said Roman Stepek of Mountain Force. Dutch luxury sportswear brand Goldbergh, founded only recently in 2010, started from the beginning with the goal in mind to complement its highly functional ski wear with an extensive fashion collection. This includes glittery golden neoprene sweatshirts with windproof membrane as well as coarsely knit casual sweaters.

When it comes to response times, fashion is still far ahead of sports. Usually, merchandise is sent at the beginning of the season, regardless if the weather fits the sport or not. Thus, to display ski collections in the stores in August and swim wear in January is not unusual for sportswear. "Psychologically, this is wrong,“ states Roman Stepek. "When a customers comes to the store in December, he basically finds old merchandise!“ In the future, the industry plans to work on better flexibility and a better seasonal start, offering for example more collections and staggered delivery dates.

Even for fabric suppliers, this means rethinking and introducing shorter lead times. Fashion companies that increasingly strive for technical fabrics and a functional added value are already demanding this. "Fashion collections reach the market much faster than sports collections,“ said Jochen Lagemann of Primaloft. "Our fashion customers mostly haven't even started with a collection while sportswear has been at it for many weeks.“

When it comes to the margins, both worlds do not really cooperate either, which is why one can find a fusion of sports and fashion with the consumer and the brands' collections but not in retail. "Only few fashion retailers accept the low sports margins,“ said Stephan Vidic who sells the brands 66°North and Colmar Originals via German sports and fashion retailers. Those who want to present a sports brand in fashion retail have to be financially attractive as well. This includes a premium of at least 2.5 according to Vidic. But high development costs and expensive fabrics and production make this hard to realize. This is why fashion brands like Desigual, Only Play, H&M or Mango dare to advance only in those sports segements that are technically not very challenging like fitness, yoga or running collections.

At Jack & Jones' sports division, experience has shown that customers do not pay the price that a highly functional jacket would demand. "Low water resistance and competitive pricing is what our customers understand better,“ said Martin Smedegaard of Jack & Jones. This is why the brand has taken high tech jackets out of the program and leaves high functionality to the specialists. Nevertheless, this area ist attractive for sports and fashion retailers as the structures of the fashion business can be transferred to the sports business and high margins, NOS programs and express collections offered to customers. "Our NOS-Parka was sold out several times during the season. Winter was great for us.“

Arquas, a project by Turkish denim manufacturer Isko, proves how fashion and sports can complement each other. The denim specialist is currently working on how to combine function with real denim characteristics.

Text: Regina Henkel, translation: Simone Preuss.

Photos: Odlo