DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 21 Aug)—Did the recently concluded Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games expose us to fashion messages that would make us unconsciously want to buy clothes?
It is hard to tell whether the aspirational image of a fit athlete is making us shop for more polyester shirts but it is important to note that when it comes to sustainability (a theme brandished by host city Paris to describe this year’s games and operations), impact beyond the environment needs to be considered.
Cultural influence is worth looking into because these inform our decisions and lifestyles unconsciously. How does that work exactly and what does this look like?
During the launch of the Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook in the Global Fashion Summit in 2023, United Nations Environment Programme sustainable fashion advocacy lead Rachel Arthur briefly discussed the idea of the “brain print” of fashion in the context of fashion shows.
She said that if we are talking about sustainability, it is not enough to only consider fashion for its carbon footprint or the amount of greenhouse gases generated by processes and actions involved in producing clothes, convening people for shows, and sending pieces to stores and shelves for selling.
Brain print is an equally important factor to examine. She refers to this as the knock on effect fashion shows have on consumption.
“A future world that is both based on the same version of unsustainable production and consumption with the same version of fashion shows will not get us to a place where we hit our sustainability targets,” she said in the summit’s mainstage.
The same idea of a brain print applies to various forms of fashion communication and marketing, and an easy example to unpack right now is right at the world of sports.
In a commentary on the Olympics, fashion critic Alec Leach said that we are more exposed to more subtle and uninterrupted forms of branding that remind us that we could be spending money. Sports, which is a universal agent that brings people together, is one of those commercial spaces.
The Olympics has been a global platform not just to showcase sports but also fashion and a glimpse into athletic prowess. Celebrity status athletes are commanding everyone’s undivided attention, shaping cultural consciousness and aspirations one victory (or loss) at a time.
With our eyes on them, it becomes natural to talk about their lifestyle and professional choices and this includes fashion.
During the games, what the athletes wore were a part of the global conversation and a glimpse of this can be caught in the news and in social media. Athletes were seen unboxing athletic wear sponsorships from big brands like Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, etc. Teams from all over the world were seen wearing sets made from recycled polyester. The Olympics also highlighted how Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) enrobed volunteer medal bearers with ensembles from upcycled fabrics. Ralph Lauren uniforms for Team USA featured 100% recycled cotton polo shirts. Other stories that caught headlines showed how some fashions are symbolic of artistry and identity such as Team Mongolia’s couture ensembles from Michel & Amazonka or Francis Libiran’s Sinag barong that featured a sling with the colors of the Philippine flag.
Various interpretations of sustainable fashion took center stage during the Olympic Games and that is a form of progress that is to be celebrated.
However, we can’t turn a blind eye to the presence of fashion’s synthetic materials.
In a July editorial, nonprofit organization Global Fashion Agenda said that “the overall sustainability of the Olympic uniforms remains inadequate, and the overuse of synthetic materials is at odds with the sustainability ambitions of this year’s Games.”
The organization furthered that the consumption associated with this year’s Olympics “is inherently unsustainable and speaks to broader issues in the fashion industry around overproduction, overconsumption, and the insatiable desire for newness.”
What does this look like for most of us consumers? A look into polyester gives us a preview.
The athletic is adorned with polyester
It is difficult to decouple polyester fashion from athletics. Whether a seasoned athlete, a fitness enthusiast professional, gear made from this synthetic fiber is a true wardrobe staple for technical reasons.
Polyester, according to Textilepedia, is one of the world’s most widely used fibers, often used for fast fashion. It is a synthetic fiber derived from petroleum that is soft, drapes easily and holds garment shapes well. Polyester makes excellent sportswear due to its sweat-wicking properties—an easy choice for scenarios that deal with a lot of sweat.
Other materials like cotton are used for sportswear but these don’t perform as good as polyester. In cotton clothes, sweat is absorbed and retained, making a T-shirt, for example, feel heavy for anyone wearing it. On the other hand, polyester is lightweight, elastic, highly durable.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, about 60% of clothing globally is made from plastic or the family of synthetics that include polyester. The impact of plastic fashion needs no introduction: apart from the production impact of clothing to the planet’s natural resources, usage throughout their lifetime causes detriment to our immediate surroundings. Every time synthetics are washed, they shed tiny microfibers which are then released into the ocean. The same microfibers make their way up the food chain. The effects of microplastic ingestion on humans remain in the shadows but marine life have experienced endocrine disruption and stunted growth. This all feels so far removed from the Olympics but clearly demonstrates how fashion is all interconnected from the production industries to natural life.
Our relationship with polyester, too, is quite complicated when our athletic lifestyles and activities come into play. In the fitness community, polyester clothes are easy choices for workouts.
BeatsCycle indoor cycling coach and fitness professional Louie Pintor leans towards polyester sets for his classes.
“I sweat a lot so I lean towards polyester,” he said. Throughout his 14-year career in fitness, Pintor has built a wardrobe full of active wear. He picks pieces from Fabletics for function, style and comfort but does not limit choices to one brand. Polyester clothes are versatile in the pricing spectrum: some command a premium, while others come dirt cheap. “Surprisingly, there are gems on TikTok that are affordable!”
Although he is particular with what he wears, he finds that the only thing that matters when it comes to clothing choices in fitness journeys is comfort. For him, clothing choices shouldn’t matter so much for as long as you have the drive to achieve your fitness goal. But when it comes to his work as a coach, he said that “like any job, you have to look the part.”
Recent social media conversations showed us how running is gaining popularity these days and #RunTok content on TikTok, for example, has filled our feeds with vlogs, shopping hauls and GRWM (get ready with me) videos that show copious fashion consumption of running gear. The general vibe of these social content has taken running beyond the exercise and into some kind of a fashion show.
In social media, running is no longer an exercise around the park. It would appear that runners are gearing up for battle, donning vests, technical shirts that match shorts or tights, speed racer glasses, and the latest running shoes from name brands.
Runner and president of the Davao Coastal Roadrunners Maya Miclat is going against the grain. She doesn’t shop so much but has accumulated active wear over the years from her participation in sporting events and races. She leads dozens and dozens of runners for running bouts in the Davao City Coastal Road every week. They are all clad in standard running attire: running shoes, colorful socks, four-inch inseam shorts and singlets or T-shirts. Polyester sets are the preferred attire for their weekly exercise. Maya emphasizes that comfort is the primary consideration for running wear. “I personally don’t think other people will care about what you wear during race day or training or at the gym for as long as you are comfortable,” she said. “I tried wearing non-polyester clothes like cotton for physical activities and I found them uncomfortable.”
Is there a solution to this?
In a polyester-free activewear edit, Good On You, a sustainable fashion ratings platform, identified a selection of clothes with “lower-impact” materials like organic cotton and lyocell, a form of rayon, which is a semi-synthetic wood pulp-sourced fiber.
Their selections featured pieces that still contained blends of synthetics but the platform argued that “the impact of your shopping choice is still reduced by opting for a garment made from a low percentage of a plastic-based synthetic like elastane.”
Some other lesser known boutique brands carry wool for athletic wear but these are not accessible to the average consumer and product ratings have indicated subpar performance: pilling and fraying after a few washes.
Personal reflections
There is some irony in my journey towards health and well-being. In yoga, for example, I always remind myself that I only need my breath and my presence for my practice. Yet, a different voice in my head (or possibly from an ad) tells me that I need more workout clothes. Here’s the funny part: I am at my best and most comfortable when I am shirtless in my workout! Yet, I keep succumbing to sportswear marketing and heeding to the message that I am successful in fitness when I am wearing the right clothes.
There are a myriad of fashion choices for athletics: an array of colors, textures and fits seemingly make acquisition of clothing fun and easy. The difficult choices only become more pronounced when we take a look at fashion’s larger impact in environmental systems. I bought brand new shorts last month and I found myself asking whether or not I really need lots of clothes to sweat on? The easy answer points to no. I could just wash and wear a set or two for sweaty gym sessions. The hard answer is that my needs and my fitness aspirations are more complicated than throwing on the same gym clothes and doing push-ups.
How do I inspire myself to journey towards fitness without heeding the call of fashion’s consumption messages? Could it be that the answer lies in my backyard?
A pared down athletic experience can inspire what sustainable fashion can look like for sports today. A quick glance at the indigenous communities in Davao City can provide some inspiration. Every Kadayawan season, traditional sporting games from various local tribes are held for public appreciation in the city’s parks.
The games include rice pounding, spear throwing, wooden stilt walking, blowguns, water fetching, fire making, and traditional versions of the tug of war. All show the same athletic prowess and celebrate the same teamwork that sports requires. Participants from Lumad and Moro communities are almost always clad in traditional attire. They wear the same clothes whether doing sports, living life, or participating in work with the city: beaded vests, a head scarf, embroidered shorts. Their style is worlds apart from whatever fancy technical fabrics are being peddled by big athletic fashion brands.
Granted that the physical efforts vary among modern and traditional sports and the sporting environment that dictates clothing, it is meaningful to acknowledge a universal element that ties the sporting activity together: identity.
Ruel Ali, a member of the Ata community in Paquibato, Davao City who also works as a Kadayawan tribal games coordinator, said that indigenous games are a culmination of their identity and culture. Although they no longer wear tree bark clothing, their devotion to wearing traditional attire with designs that pay reverence to nature is their uniform.
Whether racing on wooden stilts or fire making, their fashion is constant: a binukad (long sleeve open vest), bondera (shorts) and tangkulo (head scarf) set for men and pigkunuman, hamit (skirt), and sangkad (headband) set for women. “These are the clothes that we have been wearing since time immemorial,” he said.
Is it possible to champion sustainable fashion in sports this way? (Jesse Pizzaro Boga for MindaNews)
(Jesse currently dabbles in fitness by teaching barre classes every Monday. He is embarrassed to admit that he still takes a look at what’s new in Lululemon every Tuesday. Follow him @thegamejay on Instagram.)
