Trends

Brand managers say

Champion, distributed by Ukusa Brandhouse
Marianne Olwage-Smit, Product and Supply Chain Director

Champion draws strongly on its heritage of American athletic apparel; now it is incorporating Italian design influence to re-invigorate the use of high quality knits and bring a unique soft and fluid aesthetic to the range, whether for sportswear or casual sport-inspired wear.

Champion is well known for its iconic hooded sweatshirts, drawing on 90 years of history and tradition. This silhouette, as well as a vast variety of fleeces, will dominate whilst knits are also used across its pants and shorts lines in the commercial American, Heritage and Athletic Collections.

The brand started trading in sportswear in 1919 from college bookstores and pays homage to this collegiate influence with the Campus and College Gallery collections, featuring the logos of some of the top 50 university licenses it holds, with the prestigious Harvard, New York and Duke universities available this season.

With a long association with the FIBA, NBA and FIVB and future deals signed up to 2020, basketball and by implication hip hop, is at the heart of the brand. For fans of top performing teams such as the Lakers, Spurs, Chicago Bulls and Celtic, off-court as well as authentic replica styles are in great demand — often as fan wear in synergy with a hip hop lifestyle. Colours are bright, bold and loud and so are the designs with yellow, purple, green, reds and blacks making a powerful statement.

Men’s sportswear colours remain fairly conservative and in the darker spectrum grey is still important, but with an increased presence of brighter greens and browns.

Women’s sportswear is still very feminine with focus on flattering fits in drapery knits, with the use of ruching, ribbons and layering. Dance and yoga remain the key inspirations. Dance is associated with funkier colours in pinks, purples and greens, and yoga with soft washes of colour. Velour suits, for a more glamorous statement, will be available in rich dark colours for a luxurious expression of sport.

Women’s sportswear colours are far more playful and bright with various shades of pink (with the main tones being in the midtone to bright ranges) as well as the purples that are so dominant in fashion filtering through. Brown is the new “must have” shade and grey is proving to have staying power. Champion would like to be as bold in colour, as our retailers will allow us to be.

Champion is iconic and you can choose the statement you want to make: classic, collegiate or court sport.

PUMA

The lifestyle ranges are characterised by soft, slim-fitting clothing in monochromes, contrasted with bold colour accents.

In the Urban Mobility range slim-legged pants in a woven denim that resembles herringbone tweed or a navy blue, have been cut to fit comfortably. Ladies can look forward to short cotton-weave mini-dresses and woven pleated skirts, worn with a variety of hoodies and other zip-up jackets. Contrasting the bright whites and greens, is a range of grey tops and pants.

The PUMA Heritage range draws on past PUMA ranges for inspiration, mixed with bold graphic prints to make the range stand on its own. Hats, bags, T-shirts, you name it, have bold graphics, used in conjunction with a bright colour. Look out for grey, black and bold red as the main colour schemes. This range has an edgy-cum-relaxed look with knits mixed into the knick of things.

Kulca Klub
Eugene Boah

Boah feels there will be a huge following for sportswear with the summer Olympics and Euro 2008 soccer tournament on the horizon and the countdown to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup speeding up. However, sports inspired looks can easily be styled for casual and lifestyle wear.

The buzz word seems to be resortwear — casual-inspired looks combined with silhouettes like mercerized denims, cotton cargoes and Hawaiin shirts. Even floral prints for men.

Although there is a return movement to denim bottoms, they are in fabrics and washes that are unique in feel and weights.

The biggest movement in denim bottoms is towards normal waisted bottoms (not the hipster look of recent times) and fabrics are mercerised. Denim is now being woven with a high silk content, making them softer, yet stylish, and even allowing the wearer to combine jeans with a dress shirt and dressy leather shoes for a more stylish look.

Look out for floral prints (smaller florals) on Hawaiian styled shirts that are slightly fitted.

Logo inspired T-shirts are back and are using gold and silver foil transfers. The dominant colours are black and whites, but soft reds, yellows, browns and olives are also very popular.

Branding on the front or back of T-shirts — prints as well as flock detail — is also an absolute must for your customers’ wardrobes. These are worn to a sports event, your local pub, or even teamed with a dressy pair of jeans and leather shoes. The fitted look is in on T-shirts as well.

Stay away from polyester this summer in T-shirts; leave this to sportswear icon brands.

Cargo pants, Bermudas and clammies are strong, but fabrications on these items are more advanced — ring-spun canvas, herringbone canvas and fine Bedford cords are the way to go this summer.

Charcoals, shades of stone, taupes and browns are the best bottom colours for summer.

55 DSL, distributed by Footwear Trading
Werner Pieters

55DSL’s spring/summer 2008 is vividly colourful and graphically bold, reflecting their sportswear heritage. It is a practical and immediate collection, easy-going in character, but balanced by strong military styling and technical detailing to ensure that there’s always a subliminal aggression.

Violently saturated colours, presented against a palette of delicate smoke greys, make a lasting impression. The graphics are architectural, both in form and inspiration. This graphic theme is dispersed with corrupted video files and solarised images to create confused contrast.

They present sweats that are styled like outdoor technical layers, cut with a more decisive shape. These garments use multiple fabrics and precise detailing exploited with a twist. One example would be the mesh lining that becomes the outer layer of a jacket, while J-Flack is a hybrid of sport and military technology and Jimar-S, a field jacket in garment-dyed sports nylon.

Male denim is presented on easy, unpretentious models with the focus on silhouette, fabric and wash. Their showcase fabric this season is Hydron Blue, a powder-blue denim stitched with a white thread for a fresh summer look. Alongside our denim offer we present bright, pigment-dyed gabardine on slim-fit jeans models.

Along with their usual range of tough-built cargos and work-pants they have added cotton poplin flight-suits and rugged dungarees, together with a vast range of shorts.

T-shirts reflect the bright colours of the collection, as do the striped polo shirts, while neutral colours are presented on sophisticated viscose jersey or ultra-light pima cotton.

55DSL has the same colour story for women, although all-over prints are interpreted differently. Look out for the incredible nylon jacket that’s printed with all the graphics of the collection combined into one.

All the Classic 55DSL ingredients are present, like the military style in rich soft fabrics or the sports look in bright colours like yellow and shiny silver. Vivid colour finds its maximum expression on micro rip-stop, dip-dyed jackets.

Fancy shiny fabrics for tops and dresses, metallics for sweatshirts matching with denim colours and technical fabrics for jackets, create a glamorous sports look.

Oversize is the new trend of this collection, with jackets, t-shirts and long sweatshirts in comfortable fits. An example is the oversize parka in a soft, silver fabric.

Tops have deep necklines, designed to be worn layered with tank tops or beachwear.

Pants are generally skinny, with the exception of a couple of work style pants presented in denim and white cotton. The offer in jeans is closely aligned with the men’s collection but offers a greater range of fits.