Let your individuality shine with custom clothing. Custom clothing and sportswear aren’t new concepts, but they are having a strong comeback in today’s fashion.
Fashion personalization and custom apparel are two relatively new trends in the fashion industry that are bound to become huge very shortly.
Here is a short overview of custom sportswear and personalization in fashion trends.
A brief history of custom sportswear
To be able to talk more about today’s custom sportswear, we need to take a brief look back at history. Customization of sports apparel isn’t a new thing, it dates back to the 19th century Germany.
We know that Germany is the cradle of modern gymnastics and consequently the birthplace of custom sportswear. Gymnasts all used to wear standard gray linen clothing until the end of the 19th century when they switched to more customizable cotton shirts.
The number of gymnastic clubs was growing and they needed to be distinguishable. And cotton shirts were a perfect canvas for customization. Gymnasts started dying and embroidering their uniforms to set themselves apart. And that was the first time custom sportswear was introduced.
Over several following years, custom sportswear slowly started evolving. The Summer Olympics of 1908 saw the official introduction of custom sportswear. All the participants had to wear distinctive uniforms. Ever since then up to the Second World War, sports uniforms were made of cotton or wool jersey fabric (thus the name jerseys).
It was 1960 and 1970 that brought a complete change to custom sportswear with the introduction of synthetic fabric. By the end of the 70s, every sportsperson has replaces cotton sportswear with syntactic one.
Custom sportswear today
A lot has changed since the introduction of synthetic sportswear. Today, thanks to the advancements in technology, sportswear has come a long way. Custom sports uniforms are in high demand these days.
The fashion industry is doing everything it can to cater to athletes’ demands, including customizing the sports uniforms per the specifications of teams, clubs, or individuals.
Sports uniforms today aren’t just easily customized with different colors, patterns, names, and logos, they are also created to boost the athletes’ performance. Custom sportswear positively affects players’ behavior and mindset. On top of that, today’s sports uniforms are made of fabrics that can really boost the athletes’ performance.
We have moisture-wicking, cooling, and aerodynamic fabrics that can contribute quite a bit to athletes’ performance.
Fashion personalization
All this talk about clothing customization brings us to fashion personalization. Fashion personalization is a trend that is changing the industry and consumer fashion.
With the rise of online and retail commerce, personalized apparel has been in demand in the last couple of years. Customers want to be able to express their individuality and craft their own unique style. And for that personalization is godsent.
The major benefit of fashion personalization is the fact that it puts customers at the very center of the shopping journey. It also allows fashion brands to offer a unique and different experience to their customers.
Personalization, if done right, can be a huge benefit for fashion companies. The route from discovery to conversion is much faster.
Types of fashion personalization
Fashion personalization is a growing trend in the fashion industry. However, with the help of technology, fashion personalization is bound to become the top-rated trend and a reason behind marketing success pretty soon. Here are some of the most popular types of fashion personalization in e-commerce.
1. Personalized recommendations
Based on the information you provide, such as gender, region, and previous browsing history, brands can now offer you personalized recommendations.
Personalized recommendations allow fashion companies both to adapt to and predict changing customer preferences. This means that customers can easily find pieces that may work well with what they have already purchased before.
2. Visual similarity and visual search
AI is the technology that most brands use to help customers find visually similar items. AI that uses visual similarity analyses specific attributes of an item a customer already likes.
In addition to visual similarity, brands also use visual search. With the help of this feature, customers can find exactly what they are looking for in a matter of seconds.
3. Complete the look feature
Complete the look is one of the most useful fashion personalization types. Many people are either indecisive or simply don’t know how to complete their looks.
This is where AI can help you quite a bit. In a matter of seconds, the AI goes through several catalogs of clothing and accessories and then gives you recommendations that make the most sense. For brands, this means maximized conversions!
4. Styling advice and virtual fitting
Once again, with the help of AI chatbots, customers can now get professional styling advice. Similarly, visual fitting rooms are yet another benefit of fashion personalization. With the help of this feature, you can browse the entire fashion line without moving from your sofa.
Both customization and personalization in the fashion industry are two big trends. And with the rapid emergence of technology, personalization is becoming quite an asset to all fashion brands that want to grow fast.
