Some things you write stay box fresh for years; others have a shelf life.
Immediately after the pandemic, our Sports Technology Annual Review included a chapter on sports apparel noting that kit had slipped behind the wider sports tech curve. Designers were trying to collaborate through a disrupted supply chain, the right materials were available, but the uncomfortable truth was that fashion was driving sales and few brands were thinking seriously about a tech led arms race.
How times change.
Last summer Nike and adidas went toe to toe in a contest defined almost entirely by technology. The smart kit genie is not just out of the bottle; it is already sprinting for the podium.
Why? Because sportswear without tech is just fashion, and fashion alone no longer shifts stock.
Track and field may be wrestling with formats and visibility, but elite athletes command serious money. Glimpse a contract and you will see how exacting a sponsor’s performance expectations are. When kit becomes a variable in the result, looking good is marketing; winning is the business model.
Which is why the race for credible technology in footwear and apparel is so open. In house labs, scientists and designers can only push so far. Proposed EU sustainability legislation will be another significant hurdle. If sports brands are going to shape the performance frontier rather than simply dress it, they will need deeper collaborations, stronger external intelligence and a great deal of fresh thinking.
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