How To Design Fitness Apparel: A Complete Guide
Want to launch a fitness apparel brand but don’t know where to start? This guide was created by Amanda Rango of ARD Fashion Consulting, a designer with over 22 years of experience. You’ll be provided essential information and an Ultimate Guide of what to expect and how to get started.
This guide will address your questions related to designing athletic apparel including:
Why should I start a fitness clothing line?
Where do I begin designing my own workout clothes?
How much is it going to cost to start a fitness clothing line?
How are gym clothes made?
Why You Should Start a Fitness Clothing Line
If you have a passion for fashion and fitness, consider this your sign to start your own activewear brand. The market for active clothing has grown considerably in recent years. In fact, the GlobeNewswire predicts the global athleisure market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 5% between 2021-2026.
You may have noticed some of your favorite brands releasing a line of active or athleisure products in the last few years. It is no coincidence.
Rising Popularity of the Fitness Apparel Market
Many experts attribute this spike in fitness apparel sales dollars to the pandemic. People were looking for more comfortable clothing to wear around the house. Customers also had more time for exercise and their shopping behaviors adapted accordingly.
While many brands flooded the market with their own iterations of fitness apparel, there is still plenty of opportunity within fitness apparel design.
Opportunities in Fitness Apparel Design
One of the most unique aspects of fitness apparel design is all of the technical innovation potential that exists within the product. Think about Nike. The trajectory of performance fabrics was catapulted after the release of their signature “Dri-fit” fabric that we’ve come to know and love.
Brands like Lululemon continue to push the envelope in terms of fabric and technology with their wide range of infamous materials that has built a cult following throughout the years.
Looking beyond fabrication, there is also now the challenge for activewear to follow trend cycles. With so many options for customers to choose from, there is a pressure for brands to bring unique designs to the table.
Add in factors like price and functionality. Now you have yourself a complex formula that unlocks a wave of opportunities within fitness apparel design.
Where to Begin Designing Your Own Workout Clothes
So you’ve decided to take the leap of creating your own fitness apparel collection. Where do you start? And yes, it is possible to do without a fashion background or formal education.
The first key decision to make is whether you want to order white label or a private labeled product.
White Label vs Private Label Apparel
This LinkedIn post by Deva Fashion Consulting dives deeper into this subject, but in a nutshell, the difference between white labeled products vs private label products is as follows:
White label apparel: This is when you buy generic products from a vendor and apply your own labeling and logos. This will result in a quicker speed to market with a lower investment, however you will have limited control of design, quality, and price.
Private label apparel: This is when you work with a designer to create your own product from scratch. It requires a greater time and monetary investment. However, you can create a unique product that no other competitor offers.
Benefits of Custom Designed Fitness Apparel
I may be biased as a designer myself, but I always argue that the benefits of selling private label apparel far outweigh the investment. Besides the obvious benefit of being able to customize your product from end to end, there are also plenty of manufacturing upsides.
When you buy a white label product directly from a manufacturer, you’re giving the vendor a lot of control over price, quality, and inventory. You are heavily reliant on that supply chain relationship.
I’ve witnessed many clients get stuck in an arrangement with vendors that no longer work for their business. Maybe the manufacturer keeps missing deadlines or the cost is getting too high.
The client can’t leave the partnership because they don’t have ownership over the designs/tech pack, making it very difficult to find a new supplier.
If you’ve found yourself in this scenario, the good news is that it is possible to create your designs with an existing brand without impacting business. You’ll start by finding a fitness apparel designer.
Where to Find a Fitness Apparel Designer
You can look at freelance options for clothing designers on websites like Fiverr or Upwork. However, exercise caution by ensuring the person you choose can execute the project you are looking for.
I recommend people starting from scratch use a more holistic approach by using a design firm that offers end-to-end development like ARD Fashion Consulting (shameless plug). I’ve heard horror stories of people looking to start a brand with freelancers who spend tens of thousands of dollars without getting any results.
The end-to-end support that ARD offers is ideal because you’ll have support at every step of the product lifecycle. Conversely, your freelancer is only focused on one piece of the pie which can sometimes result in detached outcomes.
How Much Does it Cost to Start a Fitness Clothing Line?
The most famous question- how much does it cost?
With an even more famous answer- it depends.
There are a number of factors that will influence your cost to start a fitness clothing line. A few of those include:
Number of styles: If you want to launch a full collection rather than a few pieces, it will be a larger investment up front. ARD creates custom packages starting with 3, 5 or 10 styles for product launches.
Amount of artwork development: If your collection requires a unique print and/or pattern, it will increase your cost to have custom artwork created. The same goes for logos, labels, hang tags, etc.
Country of origin: This will greatly influence your cost of goods. A common manufacturing location for activewear is Los Angeles, USA. This is more expensive than Asia production, for example.
Quality: The quality of your garments not only increases the cost of the goods, but also the cost to develop. High levels of technical design and construction will require a designer with more experience and more rounds of sampling and revisions to reach your ideal quality product.
Target retails: How expensive do you want your final product to be? This is important to keep in mind when calculating how much it will cost you to launch. You want to ensure you can make enough margin to off-set the cost to make the product.
The biggest question to ask yourself is, are you looking for a service or a product?
A service includes designing and product development. A product implies that the design work is complete and you are looking for simply the cost of goods to produce.
How Much Does It Cost to Work With ARD Fashion Consulting?
ARD offers a variety of deliverables to meet client needs and budgets. We have worked with clients generating annual revenue of ten figures, as well as start up brands with zero revenue.
You can expect your design investment with ARD Fashion Consulting to start in the mid-five-figure range pending the scope of work for your project. Fill out this form to get connected with our lead designer to understand what this investment looks like for your business. Your consultation is free and not binding in any way!
How Long Will It Take to Create Your Own Activewear Clothing Brand?
There is no exact timeline when it comes to creating your own brand. As a general rule of thumb, an established brand could probably execute a standard product lifecycle (concept to final design to inventory hand over) in six to eight months.
With that being said, startup brands are generally looking at a 10 month timeline or greater. It’s also important to keep in mind that athletic fabrics and goods generally have a longer lead time than a traditional fabric because they take longer to produce.
Common Fitness Apparel Fabrics
If you couldn’t tell from my earlier section, one of my favorite parts about designing fitness apparel is the innovation within fabrics. There’s so much technology within this category but I’ll stick to a few basics for this guide.
These fabrics are common because they have advantageous properties related to:
Sweat-wicking
Anti-bacterial/Anti-microbial
Anti-chafing
Stretchability
Durability
The key fabrics to know are:
Polyester: A synthetic material that pulls sweat away from the body. Combined with durability, it is an ideal fabric for high performance workout clothing.
Nylon: A synthetic material with superior stretch and flexibility. Also promotes quick sweat evaporation.
Spandex: Also known as Elastane. Highly flexible material
More likely than not, the workout clothes in your closest are a blend of two or more of these fabrics. There are also thousands of types of trademarked fabrics that you may recognize.
Resources for Fitness Apparel Design
I hope this guide provided you with an idea of what to expect as you begin your fitness apparel journey!
If you’d like more assistance designing your fashion apparel collection, ARD Fashion Consulting is a full-service design and production firm that helps clients launch their brands from concept to creation. We work in all of the areas highlighted in this guide with decades of industry experience at the corporate level.
Check out our website at ard-consulting.com to schedule a discovery call or read more informative blog posts like this one!