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Issue 7; The Sports Wear Dilemma

by T W Coombs

I have a dilemma and I know a few that do when it comes to the new craze of designer sportswear and wearing more sports styled garments and shoes.  I have written before about my dislike of this style of clothing outside of the gym, it might be my age at 35 or the fact that when I was in my late teens the people in tracksuits were not the most reputable group.  Even if their styled ass baggy tracksuit matched, and thankfully even to this day this is a no in the fashion world.

There are ways to pull off this styled look, but for me the tracksuit bottom is to be warn at the gym or at home, or whilst doing exercise of some kind.  This is a personal choice but we all know that tracksuit bottoms eventually and quite soon bag out, a lot, and therefore look awful.  You can however dress up a pair of trainers, but take note, if you have Nike Air on, this still looks like you can’t dress yourself and should be on your way to the gym.  Your best off with a canvas tennis shoe or a leather styled pump.  I have a pair I got from Next which are pumps but have a nice leather upper which smartens them up.

As you can see from the pick at the top, I matched these with a suit jacket, shirt and jeans, throwing in a pocket square for a bit of a flourish.  Even though smart, it also has a casual feel with mixing two styles and adding in a bit of sportswear.  You can do the same with a sports top, zipper styled retro top, don’t start wearing compression gear out.  There is a craze of wearing some of these very smart looking tracksuit material trousers with blazers and shirts and a pair of white pumps/tennis shoes.  Now this is not easy to pull off and I for one looked like a toddler who had dressed up when I tried a pair on.  Just because that guy on Instagram looks cool, remember they work in fashion and may have been styled up, so tread with caution.

Sportswear can be subtly put in, but try to keep to one item and more and you look like you are trying to be the Spice Girls all at once.

What I am wearing;
Jacket - Next
Shirt - Swade
Jeans - Next - Slim Fit with Stretch
Shoes - Lether Pumps from Next - Sport bit
Pocket Square - Next