the.com/sportswear
Clothes that promise athleticism and deliver couch posture instead.
means Clothing designed for sports or exercise, cut loose and made of stretchy, breathable fabric — now worn mostly for comfort rather than any actual sport.
from A straightforward compound of 'sports' and 'wear,' dating to the late 1800s/early 1900s when tailors and department stores began marketing specific outfits for tennis, cycling, golf, and the like — clothes cut looser and tougher than everyday dress. The category kept growing through the 20th century as leisure and fitness culture expanded, eventually swallowing tracksuits, sneakers, and anything with an elastic waistband, whether or not it ever met a treadmill.
- origin
- Tailored tennis and golf wear from the 1920s
- irony
- Most of it never meets actual sweat
- economics
- Logos cost more to license than fabric
- reality
- Leggings outsell actual running shoes worldwide