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  1. #1
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    Athleisure



    Ty Haney Is the Queen of Athleisure
    Nora Caplan-Bricker
    Jun 5, 2018

    The 29-year-old CEO of Outdoor Voices is taking on Nike, one color block at a time

    “Uh-oh. ****,” says Tyler Haney, the 29-year-old CEO of apparel company Outdoor Voices, as her dog, Bowie, tucks his butt in the universal sign for bombs away. “Literal ****! I don’t have—will you hold him?” Haney hands me the pink leash and sprints for a nearby trash can, where she finds a baggie that she uses to scoop the poop from the middle of the trail. “Ahhh, gross!” she moans, discarding the twice-used piece of plastic and trotting back to reclaim her curly haired Havapoo. “I totally forgot a bag. See,” she gestures toward the back of her leggings, “I need a pocket!”

    Her blonde hair still wet from the shower after her morning run, Haney is wearing her own design, a variation on the leggings that launched her brand in 2014, with color blocks contoured at flattering angles. She’s sporting new spring colors: blue with pale ballet pink. We’ve been walking one of her favorite trails, which crisscrosses the Colorado River’s path through downtown Austin, Texas, where Haney has lived full-time for about a year. We’re talking about her plans to release leggings with more generous pockets—the ultimate uniform for hiking and dog walking. Haney recently learned that employees at one large outdoor gear company refer to athletic dilettantes as “dog walkers,” a detail that tickles her, since Outdoor Voices considers dog owners its perfect demographic: They may not be marathoners, but they’ve made a commitment to getting out every day.

    Haney has positioned Outdoor Voices as the approachable alternative to activewear titans such as Nike and Under Armour. Instead of exhorting athletes to “just do it,” Outdoor Voices asks fans to post on social about #DoingThings, which is “better than not Doing Things,” whether you’re off riding horses or just watering the plants. In place of performance, Haney talks about “moderation and ease and humor and delight,” and instead of marketing that hinges on winning, her brand emphasizes exercising in any capacity, “moving your body for your mind.”

    It’s hard to imagine a better message for this moment in American culture, when fitness is trendy, and so is sportswear. Ensembles appropriate for doing sun salutations have become acceptable attire for doing almost anything. The rise of athleisure—a portmanteau Haney loathes because, she says, “it sounds lethargic…like I’m a lump on my couch”—has created a huge opening for activewear that looks like chic casual wear. Between 2011 and 2016, the market for athletic gear ballooned to almost a third of the entire clothing business, growing about seven times as fast as the overall apparel industry.

    In this climate, Outdoor Voices’ first selling points were aesthetic: Its signature blues and grays are more versatile than Nike neon, and its minimalist crop tops work as well under a jean jacket as they do on a jog. In 2014, Haney was ahead of the curve with her oft-repeated message of collapsing the space between “your gym life and your life-life.” Four years later, everyone is talking about dressing for health and comfort at all times, and Outdoor Voices has grown to an 80-person business, raised $56.5 million in venture capital funding, and opened six brick-and-mortar stores, with ten more reportedly on the way this year, including Boston and Marin locations in summer 2018.

    “Outdoor Voices is kind of the reason that athleisure has taken off and a pioneer of the notion of wearing athletic apparel when not engaged in athletic activity,” says Leandra Medine Cohen, founder of the fashion blog Man Repeller and an investor in Outdoor Voices. “This is a market they helped to create.” This is a strong—and somewhat debatable—statement. No attempt to trace the rise of athleisure should neglect the role of Lululemon, which was founded in 1998 and has done more to sell Americans on stretchy pants for all occasions than any other company. Fashion designers’ pursuit of sportswear collaborations has also been advancing the trend for more than a decade, since Stella McCartney first partnered with Adidas in 2005. But in a moment when activewear has cornered more of the market than ever, Outdoor Voices has come to epitomize the possibility of dressing for comfort in clothes that confer a nonchalant brand of cool.

    The booming athleisure business is a mixed blessing, however. Haney has called the impossibility of escaping that label possibly the “biggest challenge” she’s faced so far. That might sound dramatic until you consider just how many brands are offering comfy leggings that are perfectly adequate for #DoingThings like lounging, working, or walking the dog. Even Outdoor Voices’ signature look isn’t as revelatory as it used to be: color blocking is now a trend, no small thanks to Haney. In January, Haney publicly accused fitness apparel company Bandier of knocking off her clothes, and angry Outdoor Voices fans flooded the competitor’s comments. Covering the dustup for fashion news site Racked, reporter Eliza Brooke pointed out “the fallibility of brands relying on aesthetics as a way to differentiate themselves” when a gray area is all that separates copycat from trend. Bandier CEO Neil Boyarsky was unrepentant, telling Racked, “No one owns color blocking.”
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
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  2. #2
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    Continued from previous post


    (Aaron Pinkston)

    Haney has been wrestling with other pressures, too—namely how to shape her brand’s identity. Last spring, Outdoor Voices released a new material called Tech Sweat, developed by its designers and exclusive to the brand, for intense exercise too “high-sweat” for its original fabric, Textured Compression. Tech Sweat sales have quickly become the fastest-growing part of Outdoor Voices’ business, and the company is responding by designing more products with the lighter, stretchier fabric. In April, the brand started releasing clothing for specific activities, beginning with running; a tennis and golf line will follow in June. Is Outdoor Voices moving away from “ease” and “versatility” toward more focused excellence? Haney emphasizes that her definition of #DoingThings remains as broad as ever, but argues that by designing for single sports, she can serve the people doing them at the extreme end of the spectrum.

    But Tech Sweat and the new running collection are also a way of “shifting from being known as athleisure to being known for technical apparel,” says Mariel O’Brien, director of product strategy at Outdoor Voices. The new direction points to an interesting conundrum for activewear brands in the age of athleisure. As sporty aesthetics become untethered from actual athletics, how do you prove to consumers that your brand is truly all about exercise? Is it wiser to cater to the broad market of casual wearers or to target devotedly active users—or, in an increasingly crowded field, does a company need both to survive?

    Haney insists that Outdoor Voices is defined by how its clothes function more than how they look. “I hate fashion, really,” she says. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable, from a business perspective, building a fashion brand. Fashion doesn’t mean much for people anymore—experiences do, and activity is experience.” Every aesthetic eventually goes out of vogue, and Haney wants to stake her brand on more stable ground. “If Outdoor Voices is with you when you’re experiencing that runner’s high, that dopamine release, there’s a chemical bond there. That’s what I’m excited to build the business around.”

    Outdoor Voices’ origin story is essentially Haney’s life story, a narrative so perfectly tailored to fit her product that respinning it feels a little like lifting ad copy. She grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where “activity is seamlessly part of what you do,” Haney says. Many childhood days included a hike up the Flatirons or a bike ride to get ice cream, and a good outfit left her free to move and sweat. Haney was an active child and a talented runner, the kind of irrepressible kid who never remembered to use her “indoor voice”—a parental refrain that produced the name of her brand (and one that appears in virtually every piece about her success). Haney rode horses, waking up at 5:00 a.m. to hit the barn before school, then headed to basketball and track practice after class. “She always wanted to beat the boys,” says her mom, Jenn Haney. Tyler loved wearing Nike, which made her feel, she says, “like the fastest, strongest, most-likely-to-win athlete out there.”

    By the end of high school, Haney was hearing from coaches who wanted to recruit her to run collegiate hurdles, but something in her resisted the most obvious path. She had a creative side, which she worried would find little expression in her life as a track star. The Haney kids grew up “surrounded by color,” Jenn says; for a while, Tyler’s parents and an aunt and uncle teamed up in a clothing business, and she grew up dabbling in sewing and painting. “She was always someone that started and finished something,” Jenn says. “Nothing she did sat in a corner.” The family’s roots were in the west, but Tyler moved east after high school, to Boston, where she spent a gap year serving margaritas at the Border Café in Harvard Square—a job she credits with teaching her “to relate to all kinds of people”—and then to New York City, where she enrolled in a joint design and management program at Parsons School of Design.

    In Manhattan, Haney’s athletic side had no outlet. Without teammates or coaches, she says, “I woke up in my senior year and thought, ‘I have no motivation to be active. What the hell?’” It was her first taste of a feeling she realized many people must have often. At the same time, Haney’s love affair with Nike was souring. Jogging on the West Side Highway, she’d glance down at herself in black spandex and muscle-mapping neon and wonder why she looked “straight out of a Transformers movie” when she was running nine-minute miles. The disconnect sapped her motivation—but it also got her thinking about other people who might feel excluded by the hardcore aesthetic of traditional fitness brands, “people who walk into Under Armour and see Steph Curry on walls and think, ‘That’s never going to be me.’” Haney saw an opening for a brand with a look and message that gave people permission to have fun jogging two miles instead of winning a race.

    The product would be “human, not superhuman” and for “exercisers, not athletes,” but Haney would attack it with the mindset of a star competitor, not satisfied until she could play against the big brands that had shaped her own sense of self. She went deep on synthetic yarns, buying bolts of fabric that she stashed under her bunk bed, looking for the perfect balance of stretch, compression, and the quality to endure countless wears and washes. Haney found patternmakers to piece together her designs and sent the sample garments to family and friends with the directive to “take this and go do things,” and then give feedback on the function and fit.

    She found early on that people, especially men, who listened to her talk about taking on Nike and Under Armour thought she was crazy. But women who tried the clothes had a different reaction. According to Haney, the compression fabric was designed to be flattering, no matter how you stretch and move, and women reported feeling good about the bodies they saw in the mirror when sporting her styles. They felt more confident than usual about working out in her clothes. “I would go into a lot of guy investors’ offices, and no one would get it,” Haney says, remembering that she was told no around 70 times. “But I started sending it to their wives ahead of the meetings, and that was really where the unlock came from.”

    By 2014, Haney had five versatile pieces on sale in a handful of small boutiques. The company’s first big break came when a buyer for J.Crew noticed the brand’s understated, cool-girl silhouette—high-waisted leggings and a crop top—and suggested Outdoor Voices for the retailer’s first-ever foray into activewear. Later, Haney staged collaborations with other fashion heavyweights, including Man Repeller and the French minimalist brand A.P.C. “Tyler’s focus on fabric is what makes her a fashion player,” Jean Touitou, founder and creative director at A.P.C., told me in an email. (Touitou is friends with Haney and an investor in her brand via A.P.C. Holding.) He describes Outdoor Voices as an exception to the aesthetic affront that he often considers activewear. “There are two ways to wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants: the ugly and the beautiful, period,” Touitou told me. “The sweat gear thing shouldn’t be synonymous with laziness.”

    “I don’t know why all this stuff is so ugly,” Haney says of her competition, laughing. “Like, hellooo. Use nice color palettes and textures. I guess that’s why Outdoor Voices has really resonated with the fashion crowd.” Outdoor Voices has been labeled “activewear for it girls” and “the fitness brand for the fashion set.” “It was a neat thing to be championed by the fashion crowd,” Haney says, though she makes sure to add, “It wasn’t my strategy.”
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  3. #3
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    Continued from previous post


    (Aaron Pinkston)

    Of course, Outdoor Voices’ aesthetic doesn’t stand out from the field like it used to—fashionable activewear is increasingly easy to find. When I called fashion marketing consultant Judith Russell, she praised Haney’s business sense and style but judged her “no different than so many others playing in an extremely competitive marketplace.” The field is increasingly crowded because of entrepreneurs like Haney, Russell says. She understood Haney’s desire to emphasize performance in addition to style. “You’ve got plenty of girls ordering Fabletics”—Kate Hudson’s activewear line—“which is known for being cute, fashionable, and affordable.” Outdoor Voices, on the other hand, is “positioned as premium, so you need unique fabrics. You need the quality…It’s a great brand, but there are a lot of really great brands.”

    In the past year, Haney has moved away from New York and the fashion world—1,700 miles away, to Austin, a city she calls “the most recreational place I’ve ever been.” Haney opened her first brick-and-mortar store there in 2014, in what the chairman of her board cheerfully calls “the worst retail location in the world,” on a peaceful residential street. Haney shifted the bulk of her operations southwest last year. Austin reminds her of Boulder, with hiking and biking trails threaded through downtown, but in Boulder, everyone you pass “is hauling ass,” whereas in Austin, “all ages and shapes and sizes of people are jogging with strollers and walking their dogs. It’s the epitome of the lifestyle Outdoor Voices is catering to.”

    Located just off East Cesar Chavez Street in rapidly gentrifying East Austin (within walking range of not one but two café cum bike shops), Outdoor Voices’ offices are full of custom plywood furniture in the same minimalist mode as the rainbows of clothing hanging around the room. In Haney’s world, style is functional in every detail. The first time we sat down to talk, her attention flicked for a moment to her blue conference room table. “We need to relaminate this,” she commented. “It bothers me that fingerprints stick.”

    The inner workings of Haney’s visual mind are evident all around her office: She collages mood boards for herself and her team to envision the direction of their designs. Images of high art—James Turrell installations; the paintings of Monica Garza, which depict curvy women of color in joyful motion—mingle with characters from pop culture, like Sailor Mars and the Energizer Bunny. Shots from the 1970s and ’80s are a recurring theme. Haney’s aesthetic isn’t retro, but she loves the era’s kitschy, colorful embrace of fitness.

    She’s especially inspired by Jane Fonda’s workout attire. In Fonda’s era, embracing leggings and leotards as everyday fashion allowed people—especially women—to convey that they valued feeling good in their clothes over anyone else’s feelings about how they looked. Observers of fashion have been saying for years that athleisure is a form of revolt against a culture obsessed with policing women’s appearances. “It’s the quintessential ‘I’m going to dress for myself’ statement,” Véronique Hyland wrote for The Cut in 2014. Both Haney’s comfortable clothes and her deft branding suit the self-image that millennial women seem to be shopping for. She told me her goal is to “take you back to how you feel when you’re young, that fearlessness to try things you have as a kid.” The women in Outdoor Voices’ promotional images usually look like they’re having too much fun to feel self-conscious. Where a classic Nike ad might show an athlete in midstride, alone with her determination, Outdoor Voices is all about group shots of women practicing backbends or dribbling balls midlaugh. If Outdoor Voices’ success is any indication, women aren’t just buying leggings. They’re hoping to buy a better, more self-assured version of themselves.

    It helps that Haney is an ideal avatar for the values attached to this mode of dress. Though Outdoor Voices has expanded into menswear, she cares most about designing “for women, by women.” As Outdoor Voices doubles down on performance, she wants the signature silhouettes to remain “feminine.” She says current projects include running skorts, exercise dresses, and high-support bras, since the original crop tops are tailored to the relatively flat-chested. Haney promotes the fact that her team is 78 percent female and prides herself on ad campaigns celebrating bodies of many shapes and sizes. She’s also, of course, a woman in business whose faith in her own ideas survived dozens of skeptical, mostly male investors, and a 29-year-old CEO whose team left the center of the fashion universe to follow her across the country. If athleisure has succeeded, in part, by offering women a small, consumer-friendly form of power, then it stands to reason that Haney, with her message about #DoingThings and her story about doing exactly what she sets her mind to, is herself a vital asset for her brand.

    Haney has come up with her own term for what Outdoor Voices is making. From now on, it’s “rec wear,” which Haney hopes captures both the “escapism or joyfulness” of a weekend camping in the woods and the midday exhale of a yoga class or a run. She wants this new taxonomy to convey that “we are experts at technical product”—that Outdoor Voices, at its core, isn’t about fashion. In the end, of course, this is just more nimble branding. Whatever Haney calls her clothes, she still has to compete against the ever-strengthening field that her company helped to create. Luckily, she’s always loved a good race.
    I luv the term "Athleisure"
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  4. #4
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    Athleisure saturation

    Despite how saturated the athleisure market is, these high-end leggings manage to stand out above the rest — here's what makes them so much better
    Connie Chen, Insider Picks
    Jun. 15, 2018, 4:22 PM 2,966


    Alala/Instagram

    If you're a woman on the lookout for high-end athleisure, you have more than enough brands to choose from.

    One name that's mentioned often is Alala, the activewear brand that blends functional performance with New York City-influenced style.

    The best-selling Captain Ankle Tight ($110), Essential Seamless Bra ($45), and Mirage Tight ($125) are a few of my favorite styles from Alala. They're light, supportive, and comfortable, while featuring small, but thoughtful design details.

    Though "athleisure" is now a regular part of our vocabulary, it wasn't always a term we could toss around without receiving a few confused looks. In 2014, just as the athleisure trend was really taking off, Denise Lee, a former executive at Burch Creative Capital who was training for her first triathlon, launched activewear brand Alala.

    This strategic timing proved to be key to Alala's rise as a leader in women's athleisure. Lee told Business Insider, "If we had been slower to launch, I don't think we would have had as much early success [as] we did."

    Launching at the right place (online) and the right time, however, wouldn't mean a thing if the product wasn't good. Alala successfully pulls off quality, style, and variety, making sports bras, tees, leggings, and other activewear that perform both functionally and aesthetically.


    Alala/Instagram
    Lee is proud of the fact that "a lot of women say they feel like superheroes or a badass when they wear Alala, and that's the feeling we want them to have — pulled-together, sophisticated, confident, and ready to conquer their day."

    The brand is a favorite among celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Reese Witherspoon, and Vanessa Hudgens as much as it is a favorite among regular women like me: casual fitness enthusiasts who wouldn't mind looking good as they sweat it out.

    I tried a few of Alala's styles, including its best-selling Captain Ankle Tight, which has sold over 5,000 pairs since the brand launched. 40% of those units were sold in 2017 alone, a testament to athleisure's staying power as more than a passing fad.


    Alala Captain Ankle Tight, $110 Alala

    The Captain Ankle Tight was my favorite of the bunch, and I can see why everyone else loves them, too. They're stretchy and not too thick, so I surprisingly enjoyed running in them on a warm June day, when I'd normally prefer a pair of shorts. That's probably also because they're moisture-wicking, and the mesh panels on the side improve breathability.

    The waistband is made with Powermesh, a firm but stretchy mesh that's supportive and comfortable. Waistbands that ride or roll down can make the difference between a good and distracting workout, so I was relieved to not have to deal with that common problem. The leggings also have a front key pocket and back zip pocket to stash your small essentials, another thoughtful design choice that let me focus on running instead of how to hold my stuff.


    Alala Essential Seamless Bra, $45 Alala/Instagram

    The Essential Seamless Bra was an unexpected hit for me. I'm a pretty consistent size medium across all types of clothing, but when it comes to bralettes and sports bras, my usual size is often tight because I have a broad back and shoulders. When I size up, the result is too loose and doesn't fit well.

    When I pulled out the Essential Seamless Bra in medium, I was highly doubtful it would fit since it looked tiny. But lo and behold, it was much stretchier than it looked, and fit very comfortably. The stylish open mesh detailing on the front and back peeked out from under my tank, and the no-seam construction made me feel like I could wear the bra all day.


    Alala Mirage Tight, $125 Alala

    I also liked the Mirage Tight, with their sheer ribbed detailing, side pockets, and cuffed bottoms. Though they don't look it, the leggings are soft and airy, unlike many performance leggings that make you feel like you're being stuffed into a rubber tube. They're perhaps better suited to more low-impact activities such as yoga or pilates, but highly comfortable and well-designed nonetheless.


    Alala/Instagram

    Based on its price point and quality, Alala falls on the luxury end of the activewear spectrum. Its leggings fall around $100 and its sports bras range from $45 to $85, so if you're already shopping at Lululemon, Sweaty Betty, and BANDIER (which just so happens to stock Alala styles), the cost won't shock you.

    The athleisure space is jammed with dozens of different brands each trying to take its slice of the pie, but Alala manages to take its share and then some with its easily identifiable and cool style, thoughtfully designed product features, and comfortable fit. More than anything, Alala makes women feel confident as they walk, run, jump, and dance their way through their workouts and beyond.
    I'm now kinda embarrassed that it's taken me this long to learn the term 'athleisure'.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  5. #5
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    J-Lo

    STYLE
    Jennifer Lopez Is the Undisputed Queen of Athleisure: Her Best Casual Moments
    By Christina Baez June 12, 2018


    Jennifer Lopez/Instagram

    Work it out! Jennifer Lopez can now add Queen of Athleisure to her already long resume achievements (Oh, you know, like actress, singer and dancer just to name a few). It’s no surprise that the mom of twins Emme and Max, 10, stuns on any red carpet she walks on and lights up the streets with her snazzy off-duty style. So there’s no doubt that her athleisure game is 100!

    Along with her amazing street style moments, the superstar continuously posts selfies giving us a peek into her comfy-dressing strategy. One brand she often shouts out: Niyama Sol. The company is known for its fun and comfortable leggings. Lopez referred to the line as having “the best and most beautiful prints” in a video she posted on her Instagram account after receiving a box of athleisure goods for Christmas.

    Whether she’s chillin’ at home, in the gym or out and about, when JLo is wearing athleisure gear you know she’s killing it. Scroll down to see some of her best athletic fashions!



    Snaked Out
    JLo flashed her toned body in fitted Niyama Sol snake print leggings and a gray tank top in a photo she posted onto her Instagram account.
    Credit: Jennifer Lopez/Instagram


    Wake and Work
    The actress snapped a selfie in black and white Niyama Sol high-waist leggings and a white sportsbra.
    Credit: Jennifer Lopez/Instagram


    Fit and Fitted
    Jenny from the block showcased her washboard abs in a mirror selfie wearing gray and green leggings and a matching top.
    Credit: Jennifer Lopez/Instagram


    Shows in Her Work
    Lopez’s casual onscreen style is also on point. While filming Second Act the actress was styled in multi-patterned leggings, a pink sweater, a blue vest and a matching beanie.
    Credit: James Devaney/GC Images


    Good List
    For Christmas, the singer received a box from Niyama Sol with a few pairs of leggings and a couple of beanies. The singer seemed overjoyed with her new gifts in a video she posted onto her Instagram account captioning the short vid, “Thank you @niyamasol for sending me my favorite workout leggings!! #gymrat #yogafun #athleisure #iwearthemeveryday #iovechristmas #theyregreentoo #nomoreboringblackleggings.”
    Credit: Jennifer Lopez/Instagram
    Is there Athleisure for men? Do I care?
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  6. #6
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    Grrrl

    Aug 2, 2018, 02:39am
    Meet GRRRL, The Billion Dollar Brand In-Waiting That's Adding Activism To Athleisure
    Katie Baron Contributor

    It’s a shining example of the much-strived for goal of brand as movement, achieved by using the inverse methodology

    Whatever women have been told they can’t or shouldn’t do is fuel to Olson’s manifesto, compounding its viability as the must-have brand for the neo-protest era

    American entrepreneur Kortney Olson is an unmitigated force of nature. Australia’s first female arm-wrestling champion, the creator of Kamp Konfidence - short, skills-based residential workshops tackling the issues limiting teenage girls - and a highly successful former sales manager for car dealerships, hers is a Hollywood-ready backstory of outsider’s empathy, brute determination and unsinkable charisma that’s now fully coalesced in her female championing athleisure e-brand, GRRRL Clothing. It’s a shining example of the much-strived for goal of brand as movement, achieved by using the inverse methodology. As Olson says: “The movement came first, I started the clothing line as a tool for communication, a way to reach a lot of women fast.”


    Kortney Olson, CEO & Founder of GRRRL Clothing (Credit: GRRRL Clothing).GRRRL CLOTHING

    GRRRL potentially posits a pivotal change in the trajectory of the lucrative athleisure sector, which is set to hit sales of $231.7 billion worldwide by 2024 but still has gaping chasms regarding diversity; the average US woman is now 16-18 (a UK 20-22) and sales of larger, technically plus-size clothing are forecast to grow at twice the rate of ‘standard’ sizes by 2020 but few sports brands are servicing the market and those that do tend to segregate the offer, offensively inferring large means atypical - blindly ignoring the statistical reality check. Lululemon, for instance, stops dead at a size large which, according to the GRRRL team is smaller than at least 67.5% of American women. GRRRL offers an important alternative for women of all sizes - best not to mistake it for a plus size one-trick pony - that identify more with weightlifting than downward dogs. That’s not to exclude the spiritual aspect of sporting enlightenment - there are few founders as evangelical or holistically-focused as Olson, who is vocal and articulate regarding wellbeing, self-love and acceptance and no activities are excluded, but the focus on the rougher, tougher fringe sports such as weightlifting, bodybuilding, martial arts and ultimate fighting undeniably offers a more potent vehicle for driving wider female empowerment.

    Whatever women have been told they can’t or shouldn’t do is fuel to Olson’s manifesto, compounding its viability as the must-have brand for the neo-protest era . The comparatively aggressive styling (there are muscles, everywhere) might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it’s certainly finding an audience, both because of and despite the visual language. While it may still be small fry in comparison to sports major players, since launching in 2015 its focus on female unification has brought home year on year sales increases of 200% and 30k+ consumers across 60 countries - 50 of whom are so militantly allied to its message they’ve had the brand’s named tattooed on their bodies . This brand and its fans mean business.



    Olson, as leader of the mission, epitomizes the cult of the personality in play. She’s a living embodiment of overcoming personal struggles (bullying, rape, eating disorders, depression, addiction) and is comfortable with advertising the difficulties of that lived experience on the basis that it will cement the brand’s values and degree of authenticity. It was bodybuilding that pulled Olson back from the brink, hence the use of physicality, often in the extreme, as the primary tool for making connections: “Most of the barriers women encounter are mental not physical but they play out physically. We’re deliberately challenging stereotypes to remind women how powerful they are.”

    The starkest example of that extreme physicality is the moniker “the woman with the world’s deadliest thighs” given to her by Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee on his US TV show Stan Lee's Superhumans (a program dedicated to people with extraordinary physical gifts) on account of her ability to crush watermelons with her legs. The notoriety has been useful for brand visibility to the extent she’s turned melon crushing into an annual event - a semi-comedic but also awe-inspiring bonding tool for the brand’s legion of devotees.

    Physical prowess of a non-traditionally ladylike nature is also evident in the athletes the brand sponsors including Holly Holm of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fame who beat legendary competitor Ronda Rousey to the world bantamweight title in 2015. To clarify, UFC involves hardcore combat using mixed martial arts and is widely billed as the fastest growing sport in the world. “This is a sport where women are pouring out of the woodwork,” says Olson, “partly because we’re actually designed to be better fighters [than men]. We have a lower center of gravity, a stronger pain threshold. It’s only society that’s told us no. Our women are warming up, as it were, with their Dad’s personal best.” While Under Armour UA -0.05% triumphed by championing the underdog, GRRRL poses a sense of equality that’s not yet been telegraphed in earnest within the mainstream brand galaxy. Formidable US powerlifter Quiana (Chuckie) Welch is due to come on board soon, potentially as a replacement, visually speaking, for Olson herself.

    Threading this literal show of superhuman strength into the brand, GRRRL’s sizing system is also based on athletes’ names. You choose based on the athlete you identify with - ranging from martial artists at the lower end (see Brionii Cuskelly) to USA weightlifting stars (see Ali Ludwig) at the other. It’s a concept anchored in body diversity devised to compound the notion that larger (plus) sizes are of equal importance to their smaller counterparts, similar to boxing weight divisions. Somewhat surprisingly, considering the current need to use a measuring tape to assess where you sit on the spectrum accurately, Olson reports miniscule return rates of approximately 1% in comparison to an athleisure industry standard of 15-20%.

    “People thought we were mad to start a brand without traditional sizing, but it’s a system that was started by a man in the 1940s… who worked in the agricultural business.” It’s an inclusive attitude towards plus size - bigger sizes but not flagged as such - now so glaring that even Khloe Kardashian has dropped the categorization on her denim brand The Good American. Quite how she reconciles that her sister Kim’s penchant for promoting hunger suppressing lollipops is anyone’s guess but the mainstream appetite, if you’ll pardon the pun, is clear.
    continued next post
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  7. #7
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    New Lululemon thread

    I just copy&pasted some of the Lululemon posts from our Athleisure thread because Lululemon really deserves its own thread. It's the heart of athleisure.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  8. #8
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    Beyond Yoga

    Former CEO of Athleta to lead Levi’s Beyond Yoga as co-founder exits
    Marianne Wilson
    Editor-in-Chief
    1/19/2024


    Beyond Yoga operates six stores, with its newest (above) in Chicago.

    A Gap Inc. veteran has been tapped to lead a growing athletic and lifesyle apparel brand.

    Beyond Yoga has named Nancy Green, former president and chief executive of Athleta, as CEO effective Feb. 1. She will succeed co-founder Michelle Wahler, who is stepping down from the role.

    Beyond Yoga said that Green will lead the company as it looks to scale “its continued growth and expansion” within the Levi Strauss & Co. brand portfolio. The denim giant acquired Beyond Yoga in 2021 as part of its strategy to tap into the lucrative activewear market and diversify its portfolio. The brand contributed nearly $100 million to Levi’s net fiscal year 2022 revenue.

    In addition to Wahler, COO and CFO Jesse Adams, who has been with the company for more than a decade and was instrumental in its success, also will be stepping down, the company said.

    Established in 2005 as a premium, wholesale-focused brand promoting body positivity, Beyond Yoga is female-founded, female-run and nearly 90% female-led. The brand opened its first physical store in 2022, in Santa Monica, Calif., and has since expanded to five other locations, with its newest in the Fulton Market district of Chicago.

    "We set out to develop a brand that honors real women’s bodies, and I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished with Beyond Yoga,” said Wahler. “I always believed that Beyond Yoga could be a $1 billion brand, and with Nancy’s experience, I look forward to seeing how she takes our vision into the future.”

    In a statement, Levi’s president and CEO Chip Bergh said that, under Wahler’s leadership, Beyond Yoga has grown from an idea to a nearly $100 million omnichannel retailer.

    “I want to thank Michelle for her leadership and for integrating Beyond Yoga into the LS&Co. portfolio,” he added.

    Incoming Beyond Yoga CEO Green served as president and CEO of Athleta from 2013 to 2019. During her tenure, the company’s revenues grew from $250 million to nearly $1 billion, with operating margin significantly growing and its store network expanding from 39 to 175 stores.

    From 2019 to 2022, Green was president and CEO of Old Navy, where she oversaw the brand’s growth from $8 to $9 billion, with significant growth in activewear. She also held several other executive positions within Gap over the course of her career, along with a four-year stint at Pottery Barn.

    Green has served on boards that include Marine Layer, Allbirds and the National Retail Federation, and is on the advisory board of Lily AI. She is a senior advisor at the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

    “We have arrived at a natural inflection point for this incredible brand, and as we pursue the next stage of growth, we believe Nancy has the experience to fully unlock the potential of Beyond Yoga by leveraging her impressive retail expertise and LS&Co.'s extensive global resources and capabilities,” said Michelle Gass, Levi’s president and incoming CEO.

    Beyond Yoga is poised for further expansion through increased direct-to-consumer channels, including brick-and-mortar, category growth and an enhanced wholesale footprint. The brand will continue to operate as a standalone division within Levi, maintaining its core ethos while leveraging the company’s resources to expand its reach and impact.

    “As a purpose-driven leader, I’m inspired by the fact that Beyond Yoga stands for more than just comfort and performance; the brand has created an inclusive, body-positive community that celebrates diversity and giving back,” said Green. I’m committed to staying true to these values as we continue to build this community and scale this brand for its next chapter of growth.”
    Athleisure
    Yoga
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  9. #9
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    white women aesthetic

    Young women in China abandon traditional beauty standards to ‘imitate’ Western habits like wearing yoga pants, eating ‘white people’s food’
    Growing numbers of young mainland women seek more relaxed lifestyle
    Online observers say copying Western ways is not always possible in China
    Yating Yang
    in Beijing
    Published: 2:00pm, 9 Feb, 2024


    Increasing numbers of young women in China have latched onto a growing trend which has been dubbed “white women aesthetic” on mainland social media, in which they mimic Western lifestyle choices. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock

    Young women in China are abandoning traditional beauty standards and mimicking Western lifestyle choices by eating healthy “white people’s food” and copying their clothing choices.

    Females across the country are shunning patriarchal norms as China witnesses the rise of a new trend which has been dubbed “white women aesthetic.”

    It reflects a growing desire to embrace a more relaxed lifestyle and a desire to attain middle-class status, according to a report by Huxiu.com.

    The phrase “white women aesthetic” recently emerged as a buzzword on the Xiaohongshu social media platform, accompanied by the slogan – “Question white women, understand white women, become white women” which is gaining currency online.

    The lifestyle switch is characterised by Lululemon yoga pants, Stanley thermos and “white people’s food” which is considered to be healthy.


    Yoga pants and yoghurt have emerged as a central component of the new lifestyle phenomenon. Photo: QQ.com

    Women are being drawn to a range of products, from tank tops and yoga pants to backpacks and thermos, indicating a shift towards a more relaxed and comfortable way of life.

    Central to the food component of the trend is the yoghurt bowl.

    This involves filtering Greek yoghurt overnight to create a dry and thick yoghurt cube, then combining it with nuts, cereals and low-sugar fruits like blueberries, creating a dish rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and fats.

    The “white women aesthetic” first gained popularity on Western social media.

    Influencers in the US frequently share their daily routines on TikTok, showcasing their lives in tidy, luminous houses where they often start their day drinking water from a Stanley thermos, dress in popular influencer-branded outfits, make lattes on pricey kitchen countertops and prepare bowls of yoghurt and oatmeal.

    Fitness blogger Da Mengli was among the first influencers in China to popularise yoghurt bowls on Douyin, inspiring others like Juanzi to follow suit.

    Da Mengli often wears tank tops to show off her muscles in her home, which has under-floor heating, while Juanzi’s similar style tops expose non-toned shoulders and her cold, unheated home in southern China.

    While in Da Mengli’s videos she is seen standing up while eating in a Western-style marble kitchen, Juanzi can be seen in plastic slippers while doing the same.

    However, one online observer pointed out some problems with the new aesthetic.


    However, some online observers say different living conditions and dietary habits in China can make adapting to the “white women aesthetic” difficult. Photo: Shutterstock

    “In a shared apartment, it’s impossible to replicate the feel of a suburban villa. A worker with a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan (US$1,120) can’t wake up at 6am for skincare and exercise.

    “This is especially the case when they need to catch the early subway. Also, eating oatmeal yoghurt bowls every meal would upset a Chinese stomach.”

    A third person said: “So many people don’t really know what lifestyle they truly enjoy, they just follow trends blindly.”


    Athleisure
    Yoga
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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