ITAA-KSCT Joint Symposium

Female Millennials Wearing Workout Wear as Daily Wear in the U.S.

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Abstract

Due to the rise of fitness-conscious consumers who consider athletics not only a hobby but also a lifestyle (Petro, 2015), athleisure wear has become a large lifestyle trend among female consumers. it is common to see women in yoga pants and similar workout attire rather than skinny jeans as athleisure is now a comfortable lifestyle for consumers of all ages focusing more on lifestyle than performance (Marshal Cohen,2017).Regardless of age, athleisure has proven to be popular among females of all ages with exceptional popularity among millennials. Younger millennials (ages 18–24) tend to spend more time and money on beauty and specialty apparel retailers, sportier, eat healthier, cook less, and shop wholesale more often than older millennials (ages 25–34). Athleisure is an attractive clothing category becoming part of young female millennials’ lifestyles The purpose of the study is to determine how and why more young female millennials in the U.S. wear workout wear as daily wear and at they most value by doing so.This study explains and understand the popularity of athleisure among young female millennials in the U.S. The survey was distributed to fashion design and merchandising students enrolled in two fashion courses in a large public Midwestern university in the United States. In total, 235 participants completed the surveys, including 199 female students. For this study, only female students’ data were analyzed. Most participants were 18–24 years old (97.5%; n=194) and White or Caucasian (75.9%; n=151). The participants were asked various questions related to wearing workout wear as daily wear, workout habits, their interest in health issues as well as the self-objectification questionnaire (SOQ) developed by Noll and Fredrickson (1998). SOQ measures the extent to which individuals consider five observable physical attributes (i.e., weight, sex appeal, physical attractiveness, firm/sculpted muscles, and measurements) to be more important than five nonobservable physical attributes (i.e., physical coordination, health, strength, energy level, and physical fitness level). Respondents ranked all 10 attributes in the order of their impact on the physical self-concept, from least impact (rank=0) to greatest impact (rank=9).

* Keywords: Athleisure, workout wear, millennial, self-objectification

How to Cite:

Choi, S. & Hahn, K., (2018) “Female Millennials Wearing Workout Wear as Daily Wear in the U.S.”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 75(1).