How to Start a Fitness Clothing Line

With the changing trends of virtual meetings and work-from-home policies, coupled with a booming health and wellness industry and the influence of pop culture, the activewear and “athleisure” clothing industry has become a huge phenomenon in fashion today. Fitness clothing lines have evolved in recent years, stepping away from serving the sole purpose of being worn during workouts, and becoming more of a pervasive daily wardrobe choice. From tights to hoodies to casual sweats, activewear and athleisure are popular both for comfort and for achieving that trendy streetwear vibe. In fact, the global activewear industry is expected to reach $547 billion by next year! If you’re thinking of starting a fitness clothing line, don’t sweat it! There’s no better time to jump on the bandwagon. Read on to learn more about how you can start a successful fitness clothing line that will race ahead of your competitors on the market:

Define your niche

This is the golden standard of starting any business and ensuring your success. Are you targeting women, men, or both? Do you want a streetwear line that’s trendy and hip, or are you leaning more towards activewear? Do you want to focus on sports and athletics, or more on leisure, comfort and style? Defining your niche will help you become clear on the type of products you want to see and will help you clearly target your audience, dictating everything from inventory to marketing.

Design or Dropship?

This is the meat and potatoes of your business venture. Do you want to design and create your own products (or employ tailors who can create your designs for you)? Or do you prefer to go the drop shipping route, as a seller that focuses on curating products from an existing apparel company and working on the actual branding, marketing, and selling? This will determine whether your costs are at the front-end, with the brand design, printing of your logo, and marketing, or back-end, with purchasing fabrics and tailoring. It will also determine the extent of your labour. If you go the dropship route, A2Z Wholesale can supply your apparel. We provide a vast variety of men’s, women’s, and children’s activewear, athleisure, swimwear, and streetwear. We also provide custom printing, from screen printing, DTG, DTF, and embroidery. That way, we serve as your one-shop-stop, simplifying your supply chain. You can work with us to curate your pieces, develop your branding, and print on all your apparel.

Pick your Products

This step in the process is directly related to how you define your niche in step 1. Depending on the audience you choose to target, you may want to offer some of the following products, all of which can be found at A2Z Wholesale: 

Activewear/Sportswear

• Biker shorts
• Swimwear
• Yoga sets
• Joggers
• Gym shorts
• Track suits

Athleisure & Streetwear

• Sweatsuits
• Lounge sets
• Tees
• Fashion joggers
• Hoodies & jogger sets
• Dolphin shorts
• Body suits

Branding and Marketing

Create a brand that reflects your ultimate vision and appeals to your target audience. This includes the brand name and logo design, which will appear on all your products. Is your brand minimalist or bold and flashy? This will dictate how you design your logo, from the sizing to the text and colors. Based on your brand decisions, create a marketing strategy that, again, reflects the same style and vision. We created a whole blog post on how to marketing a clothing brand online, from creating a social media presence to collaborating with influencers who typically adopt the values and style that you’re trying to market. These are just a few of many creative avenues you can explore to get your fitness line on the streets.

Start selling!

Create an online store and become an ecommerce merchant by partnering up with a selling platform or fulfillment store like Shopify, which is ideal for small businesses, or Amazon, which is great if you decide to take your new business global. Whatever your vision and your scope, the possibilities are endless. 

Connect with A2Z Wholesale to see how we can partner up to help you create a fitness clothing line under your brand.