How sports became fashion

The history of fashion and sports is intertwined in many ways. Sometimes hair trends are inspired by players on the football pitch, sometimes it’s a specific sport that inspires street style or fashion houses. Luhta, a Finnish family-owned company that lives and breathes the world of sports, is dressing Finland’s Olympic team as well as countless Europeans with an active lifestyle.

When did sportswear become fashionable? Athletic attire inspired at least some of the subcultures in Great Britain and North America. In England, football fans adopted the styles of tennis stars such as Björn Borg and John McEnroe. The polo shirts that were first only worn by athletes were soon spotted on the streets.

In the United States, however, hip-hop culture was influenced by basketball. This trend saw Puma and Adidas basketball shoes co-opted by the aesthetics of rap music. In the 2000s, the most-watched football star, David Beckham, was an example of how men, too, can be creative and have fun experimenting with different style choices.

Today one of the most inspiring examples of fashion and sports coming together is the collaboration between the football team Venezia FC and the sportswear manufacturer Kappa. The stylish shirts and the high-level fashion editorial photography showcasing the team apparel have reached a worldwide audience.

Club wear and sports clothing have always been used to express a sense of belonging to a specific group. The person wearing the apparel might at the same time be particular about their own personal style. Clothes combine the desire to distinguish oneself from others yet still be part of a group.

Athleisure trend takes over

Over a period of several decades, Luhta, the 100-year-old sportswear company, has stood out as a beacon of innovations and trends in Finland. In the 1960s, it introduced people to quilted jackets made from water-repellent fabric, the next decade it created unisex jersey jackets, and in the 1990s Luhta took on the snowboarding trend by launching the bold Tokka Tribe collection – these are just a few examples.

– The skill level and passion of our personnel are fundamental reasons why we have been able to do all this. This is not a job, it’s a lifestyle. We need to recognise emerging trends. They can’t be spotted by looking at data or numbers. You need to trust your intuition, says Juha Luhtanen, CEO at Luhta.

According to him, the fashion and clothing business has shifted in a sportier direction. He believes fashion and sports will tie in together even more. The pandemic further emphasised the shift by bringing sportswear into the realm of remote work.

– The requirements for clothing have changed. Even with performance fabrics you can make clothes that look great. The use of those materials, though, requires know-how. Sportswear manufacturers have discovered the potential in making more casual style clothing, often called athleisure, which has been well received by consumers. Luhta is also keeping up with this trend and we will be launching the new Luhta Smart Sportswear collection in the autumn of 2025, he says, revealing the latest news.

Luhta behind the Olympic collection

The Olympics are one of the most important events in the world of sports. Luhta is part of them by dressing Finland’s Olympic team. The collaboration that began in 2017 has evolved with each collection. The feedback from the athletes has been valuable both for product development and the designers.

The theme of the 2024 Summer Olympics collection is light and shadow – a reference to the seasonal fluctuation of light in Finland. It draws some parallels to sports. If you win, you are in the limelight. However, it comes with a lot of work, and there are moments that cast a shadow. In line with the theme, the garments are lighter in the front and darker in the back.

The collaboration gives Luhta credibility on the international markets. From a commercial point of view, the Olympic collection has an impact both on the national market and the market where the Olympics are held.

– We wanted the Paris collection to be under the Rukka label, since it has gained a foothold as a running wear brand in France. The selection available for consumers in France takes its inspiration from the designs of Finland’s team. We tweaked it a bit to suit local preferences.

The weather conditions in Paris in July-August were especially taken into account when designing the collection. The athletes’ wishes concerning both the details on the outfits and the choice of products for the collection were valuable. Only essential, multi-use products were included, making the collection a fifth smaller than the previous one.

– When the Olympics are over, we will take back any collection items the athletes do not want to keep. We will donate them to charities or deliver them to our recycling partner, Luhtanen says.

 

Responsible materials are developing

Some of the materials used for the Olympic collection include innovative Finnish fibres made using recycled or plant-based material. This includes Pure Waste’s jersey fabric made from spinning and cutting waste, Spinnova’s textile fibre made using wood pulp, and Sorona, the bio-based fibre used to replace some of the elastane – a material proven to be challenging in terms of textile recycling.

– First and foremost, the products have been designed to last for as long as possible. We did make recycling easier, for example, by using mono-materials and by avoiding elastane. When you manufacture a garment using mono-material products made solely from one fibre material, you ensure 100% recyclability and utilisation, says Luhtanen.

Luhta manufactures products made from innovative materials also for consumers, but so far, the quality and minimum requirements set for the materials have restricted wider use.

– I can tell you that in two years’ time we will be in a whole new situation. Responsible materials are developing in terms of properties and appearance. This gives the designers more possibilities to work with, Luhtanen says.

The company does not have a material development department of its own. It operates closely with its partners. The production of technical materials is concentrated in Asia, and Luhtanen has seen great strides in the development of responsible materials in recent years.

– When we chose Torstai as the label to lead and represent our responsibility efforts in 2017, I remember how difficult it was to find, for example, recycled materials. Nowadays, huge leaps have been made in material production in Asia, along with investments in machinery. They made it happen so that they can meet the requirements set by the EU textile strategy. Consequently, they also respond to our needs, Luhtanen says, happy about the outcome.

Dressing Europeans with an active lifestyle

It is not a well-known fact that Luhta Sportswear Company is one of the biggest sportswear companies in Europe, with over 1,000 employees.

The company first attempted to enter the international market in the 1970s in England. In the 1990s, Luhta had gained a good share of the European market, but then went on to lose it.

– Unfortunately back then we weren’t quite aware of the trends in outdoor clothing. This was when the 80s fashion look started to shift in a more technical, functional direction. We lost that market, but began working at it again in the beginning of the 2000s, and we have since been successful, Luhtanen recounts.

Luhta divides the European market into Nordic, Germanic, Latin and eastern European segments. Each has its characteristics and desires. For example, in France the sportswear business is very fashion driven. There, jeans and button-up shirts are sold alongside sportswear. The Germanic market emphasises technical qualities and functionality. It comes as a bit of a surprise that the Nordic market is more about colours, yet with a preference for a more minimalistic look than the other markets.

– We want to offer each market a slightly different look, which is why we focus on the design aspect. This is why we have a local organisation in each of the main markets. We don’t want to make universal designs like big brands such as North Face and Columbia are doing. Next, we aim for growth in the European market, and we will strengthen our brands, Luhtanen sums up.

 

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