Draw-string trackies on the runway at Alexander Wang. Picture / Getty images.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the sale of yogawear in America went up by 45 per cent last year. This despite the fact that the increase in the number of Americans actually doing yoga was a mere 4.5 per cent.
Take those two statistics together and what have you
got? You've got a lot of women in comfortable pants, is what you've got. The trackie revolution is well under way among our American sisters. They're wearing their comfy pants wherever the day takes them; to work, to school, to coffee, maybe even to an actual yoga class on special occasions.
It's estimated the US market for fitness gear in general has been growing by 5 per cent on average for the past five years. It'll be worth US$100 billion ($1.2 billion) by 2020, is the prediction. That's a lot of trackie-dacks, and we're not even including the high-end versions.
Kanye reckons he invented the leather jogging pant well before Celine made one, meanwhile Alexander Wang has been doing them for ages. You'll pay US$200 for any one of those, minimum. But women are prepared to drop mad money on sweatpants nowadays. I should know. I'm one of them.
My pants aren't Alexander Wang, but a fancy enough American label. I scored them in TK Maxx for a price rather lower than the ridiculous amount you'd pay retail. They're the kind you see Jennifer Aniston coming out of the gym in: your basic, 3/4 length, grey marl trackies with a drawstring waist.
