The challenge that will decide sportswear in 2025

The year 2025 began with a story that could summarise the challenges and contradictions that will define the year: from the clash between legacy brands and emerging brands that will take their place, to new trends in sportswear and fashion. But let's start at the beginning. In late 2024, Nike uploaded to its online store, its main retail channel, a T-shirt designed by its Nike Running Division without much expectation. A technical model in blue and light grey, made from the proprietary Dri-Fit material and similar to many others that have been on sale for years. The only real difference are the holes at chest height and on the back, as if the tee had been shot through. An unusual detail that immediately caught the attention of a clearly defined part of the running community, which has chosen SATISFY as its cult of reference. In recent years, the Parisian running brand has become an authentic point of reference for enthusiasts who want to stand out in their 5 miles or half-marathon races with minimalist but carefully designed clothing.

And precisely one of these details is the MothTech, a technology that has become synonymous with the brand since its launch in 2015 and was personally designed by founder Brice Partouche. Inspired by the perforated T-shirts of old rock bands he used to go running in, Partouche studied the mapping of the body to isolate the key points of human perspiration and support them with micro-perforations exactly similar to those left by moths on old clothes. The confluence of functionality dedicated to performance and second-hand grunge aesthetics could not help but ignite the attentive running public at the very moment when this normally solitary activity became the centre of communities and clubs. Spaces of gathering and sharing were to transcend the post-Covid phase and create a new sociality that also and primarily consisted of after-work runs. The cultural hummus, in which the most envied and copied aesthetic of the last year, that of the runner and his communities, has found its place.

A trend so influential and significant that everyone wants to get their hands on it, even to the point of taking it a little too far, as in the case of Nike, which went too far in its desire to make a product too similar to Satisfy. The blame, or perceived blame, was also compounded by the balance of power between the two brands involved, which in the past would have been described as David versus Goliath. On one side, the global sportswear giant, one of the best known and recognised brands in the world, in the other corner, the boutique company, without a board or stakeholders, but with a large number of followers, as one of the brand's most famous claims, Running Cult Member, states. A difference in size that also testifies to fundamentally different approaches, which SATISFY wanted to point out in detail in its LinkedIn response to Nike's dupe.

“This incident highlights the transformation SATISFY has sparked in the running world, where independent brands are driving innovation at the intersection of sport, style and culture. Our designs resonate well with runners who are looking for apparel that fulfils their performance needs and reflects their identity by challenging the status quo. We are grateful to our community for their vigilance and unwavering support as we continue to push the boundaries of running culture.” A programmatic message rather than a response by advocates, a perfect endorsement to do some self-promotion by capitalising on the moment. Building on its reputation, Satisfy had an easy game to differentiate itself even more clearly from big corporations like Nike.

So the challenge is there, and it will define the next twelve months in the sportswear landscape even more than we've already seen in 2024. In recent years, the gap between the old and new brands has narrowed significantly, and the latter are in the process of changing the balance of power. According to Business of Fashion's The State of Fashion 2025 report, challenger brands will generate the majority of economic profits in sportswear in 2024, changing the paradigm by which the market has been measured to date. Now it is the new brands that are being born in the shadow of the Big 4 (Nike, adidas, PUMA and Under Armour) that are the real revolutionaries of the industry. They often originate from so-called niche sports, are connected to a vertical audience and are supported by strong and grounded communities that are able to be both credible and desirable. Older brands have no choice but to try to emulate them and, in cases such as Nike and SATISFY, copy technical innovations without embodying their identity.