Sportswear Design for the Active Ageing

Abstract

The sports industry lacks comfortable clothing for the active ageing population that addresses technical and style requirements for engaging in healthy exercise. What is missing is clear design direction to guide product developers in the functional clothing needs of this rapidly growing sector, often defined as the Baby Boomer generation. Strategies are needed to disrupt “business as usual,” perpetuated predominantly through feedback from last season’s sales and youth-oriented fashion trends. Little record exists of sales to the ageing community, and fashion forecasting neglects the aesthetic, practical and cultural demands of what will become the new consumer majority. The author discusses “Design for Ageing Well” cross-disciplinary research where co-design methodology has been adopted for the design of outdoor sports clothing, with assistive wearable technologies, for participation in walking by 60–75-year-old men and women. Practical research outputs provide guidance in the design of age-appropriate functional sportswear with the application of smart textiles and wearable electronics. It is proposed that the requirements of the so-called “new old” may be addressed through involving all stakeholders in a comparatively slower and more responsible collaborative process that results in design which is attractive and fit-for-purpose and which will endure beyond the current seasonal cycle.