Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
Athleticwear is clothing designed to be worn while taking part in athletics, or to suggest a similar sporty casual style. The terms athleticwear, activewear and athleisure are possibly interchangeable, and the subject connects closely with sportswear and activewear more broadly. This page defines athleticwear for women, men and children, explains where the overlapping terms differ in emphasis — garments made for performance in sport, garments made for an active life generally, and garments that borrow the sporty look for everyday casual wear — and sets out what wearers should expect from clothing built for movement.
Athleticwear is clothing designed to be worn while taking part in athletics, or to suggest a similar sporty casual style. Athleticwear, activewear, and athleisure are possibly interchangeable terms.
Learn more about
sportswear and
activewear.
You may also be interested in learning about athleisure fashion.
Thank you for using the Apparel Search website to learn about athleticwear for women, men, and children.
You might also enjoy reading some of out activewear blog posts.
Athleticwear earns its name in use. A garment designed for athletics has to move with the body without binding, manage the sweat that exertion produces, and survive frequent hard washing without losing its shape or function. In practice that means stretch built into the fabric or the cut, seams placed so they do not rub during repeated motion, and constructions light enough not to burden the wearer. Clothing that merely suggests the sporty casual style borrows the visible signs — the silhouettes, the fabrics' look, the branding of performance — while being made for ordinary daily wear, which is why the same shopper may own both kinds and choose between them by what the day actually involves.
The three overlapping terms sort the market by intention. Athleticwear in the strict sense is designed to be worn while taking part in athletics: training, competition and practice. Activewear widens the brief to an active life — exercise, walking, travel and busy days that reward comfortable, mobile clothing. Athleisure completes the shift: the sporty casual style worn as fashion, in settings where no sport will happen at all. The overlap is real, and a single garment can serve in more than one category, but the distinctions help a buyer read a product honestly: a piece engineered for performance will specify its function, while a purely stylistic piece trades on appearance. Neither is a defect — the error is only in expecting competition performance from a garment designed for the street, or all-day casual polish from one designed for the track.
Start from the activity. The right athleticwear fits the movement of the sport: coverage that stays in place, a fit close enough not to snag or flap but not so tight it restricts breathing or stride, and fabric suited to the conditions, lighter for heat and indoor work, more protective for cold and outdoor training. For women, men and children alike, try the garment in the motions of the sport itself — reaching, bending, running in place — rather than judging it standing still. Care is simple but important: athletic fabrics perform best washed promptly after use, kept away from heavy fabric softeners that coat technical fibers, and replaced when stretch and support are gone, since worn-out athleticwear fails exactly at the job it was bought for.
Athleticwear is clothing designed to be worn while taking part in athletics, or to suggest a similar sporty casual style. It is made for women, men and children, and its design starts from the demands of movement, exertion and repeated washing.
The three terms are possibly interchangeable, and they overlap heavily. Athleticwear points at clothing for athletics itself, activewear at clothing for an active lifestyle, and athleisure at wearing the sporty casual style as everyday fashion, whether or not sport is involved.
Sportswear and activewear are the closest related subjects, and athleisure fashion is the style category built from athleticwear's look. Reading across those subjects gives the full picture of how performance clothing and sporty casual clothing divide the market.