Hyosung TNC Corp., the world’s largest spandex producer, is dealing with an sudden downside: The stretchy fiber that powered the athleisure revolution is dropping enchantment among the many subsequent era of customers preferring their exercise garments dishevelled.
In current weeks, the South Korean firm‘s third-quarter working revenue estimates have been lower repeatedly.
NH Funding & Securities Co. revised down its estimate for the textile large’s working revenue from 79 billion gained ($54.5 million) to 75 billion gained in late October.
Hana Securities Co. went additional, reducing its forecast to 59.5 billion gained, roughly 25% beneath market consensus.
The explanation is not a supply-chain downside or rising prices.
It is a shift in style preferences amongst customers of their 20s, who’re abandoning the form-fitting leggings that dominated activewear for over a decade.
LOOSE FIT NOW RULES
Leggings commanded 46.9% of the ladies’s activewear bottoms market within the US and the UK in 2022, in keeping with retail analytics agency EDITED. By 2024, that share had fallen to 38.7%.
Over the interval, buyers have more and more opted for joggers, observe pants and wide-leg kinds.
Pinterest information additionally exhibits that searches for “loose-fit activewear” are rising, with 58% of these queries coming from customers aged 18 to 24.
Style commerce publication Enterprise of Style not too long ago famous, “After dominating wardrobes for greater than a decade, leggings are not the go-to backside for a lot of youthful customers — even within the fitness center.”
The shift is hitting main manufacturers onerous.
Lululemon Athletica Inc., as soon as synonymous with the athleisure increase, has seen its inventory drop roughly 50% this yr.
The corporate’s annual earnings-per-share steering of $12.77 to $12.97 falls in need of the $14.45 analysts anticipated.
The corporate plans to cut back the share of leggings in its product combine whereas introducing new gadgets that cater to the most recent pattern in a bid to discover a breakthrough.
Competitor Alo Yoga, an American premium athletic attire retailer, has already pivoted towards loose-fit pants and observe bottoms.
A current Nike collaboration with Kim Kardashian’s Skims model additionally affords dishevelled pant choices for customers shifting away from skin-tight kinds.
SPANDEX PRODUCERS FEEL THE SQUEEZE
The style change is affecting spandex producers past Korea. In China, the world’s largest producer and shopper of spandex, associated firms are pulling again.
Huafeng Chemical’s internet revenue fell 35% year-over-year in 2024. Opponents, together with Yantai Tayho Superior Supplies and Bailu, are seeing manufacturing facility utilization charges decline and the benchmark spandex market costs soften, pressuring margins.
The business’s new capability additions are anticipated to complete simply 70,000 metric tons in 2026, down from 160,000 tons this yr, a 56% contraction, suggesting producers’ warning about future demand.
Analysts count on this pattern to proceed for some time because the market works by means of dwindling demand.
GEN Z‘S DIFFERENT PRIORITIES
The change underlines Gen Z’s distinct strategy to clothes, setting them other than millennials.
Whereas millennials embraced body-conscious athleisure as a part of wellness tradition, Gen Z prioritizes consolation and self-expression over form-fitting kinds, in keeping with pattern analysts.
Style observers additionally word that youthful customers more and more favor relaxed silhouettes that emphasize ease over compression, reflecting broader generational values round consolation and self-presentation.
Korean activewear manufacturers are adapting to the brand new wave.
Andar has expanded its males’s line and moved into golf and coaching attire designed for on a regular basis put on.
Mulawear is repositioning across the so-called swimleisure, combining swimwear and yoga put on to diversify past leggings.
Each firms are rebranding themselves as life-style put on suppliers, an acknowledgment that form-fitting bottoms have misplaced their enchantment amongst youthful customers.
