Luxury fashion brands are embracing athleisure

Showing up in yoga pants and sneakers anywhere outside of the gym was once frowned upon, yet today's street-style icons and professionals alike flaunt their healthy lifestyle on the go by donning limited-edition trainers matched with high-performance sportswear and smart-tech gear. It's apparent that the athleisure trend is here to stay.

The term athleisure - recently included in the 2016 - refers to casual clothing designed to be worn for exercising and general use.

"It's definitely not just for the gym," says Kelly Wong, Lane Crawford's general merchandise manager. "We encompass the idea of the customer lounging in athleisure, doing sports in them or even extending its versatility to wear to work and go straight to the gym afterwards, hassle-free."

The athleisure category has shown promising growth over the past few years. According to a Morgan Stanley Research report last year, the US activewear market accounts for annual sales of US$97 billion. The report estimates that the industry could add more than 30 per cent growth in sales by 2020 in the US market, whereas Europe could expect 5 per cent average annual sales growth over the next five years.

"We think the market will be surprised to learn how broad-based the cultural factors driving athletic apparel and footwear sales are," says Jay Sole, Morgan Stanley's branded apparel and footwear analyst.

Many attribute the popularity of athleisure to the change in people's lifestyle - focusing on health and well-being. Sweating it off at a spinning class or an aerial yoga session on a Friday night is now the new norm.

"It's a shift that we are seeing within our daily lives," says Lisa Aiken, Net-a-Porter's fashion director. "Very often, we are not training alone. There's a social element in taking fitness classes together. It's another dressing occasion that we need to find a solution for our customers."