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Sportwear in the Next Normal: Product Development and Marketing

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 13202

Special Issue Editors

Department of Fashion, College of Arts, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea
Interests: sustainable sportswear materials; eco-friendly market survey; social network analysis; protective smart sportswear;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Human-Tech Convergence program, Department of Clothing and Textiles, Hanyang University, 04763 Seoul, Korea
Interests: sustainable sportswear materials; omnichannel retailing; social psychological aspect of fashion consumption; fashion marketing and merchandising;

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The sportswear market was expected to grow in 2019 at a rate of more than 10%. Rapid innovation, an increase in healthy sustainable lifestyle among people across the globe, and the increasing popularity of sports events such as the Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup was expected to exponentially increase the market. However, the pandemic in early 2020 brought unprecedented uncertainty in the sportswear industry. Despite increasing levels of uncertainty in the market, various technologies were applied in the product development of synthetic materials; innovative construction methods such as knitting technology; and smartwear advancement continuously adapted to the new normal. Due to the need for an no-contact lifestyle, sportwear styles started to appear in digital runways featuring luxury fashion. Sportswear retailers put their efforts into implementing digital transformation, and omnichannel marketing grew rapidly. Well-known sportwear brands such as Nike and Adidas displayed strong brand value in Interbrand 2020 by releasing effective omnichannel marketing strategies to cope with the pandemic. The use of technology in the sportwear industry, such as augmented reality in apps, also rendered virtual retail settings more approachable to customers. Efforts made to combat the negative economic effects of COVID-19 paid off during the third quarter of 2020, as the sportswear market started to recover its popularity.  The world is changing more rapidly than ever, and therefore preparation for the “next normal” is absolutely necessary. Accordingly, research on how developers and marketers further stimulate growth even with the barriers imposed by coronavirus has increased.  The focus of this Issue includes but is not limited to sportswear: issues in activewear and smart gears featured in sportswear shall be included. While investigating this issue, it is important to note that the boundary between activewear and sportswear and the boundary between wears and gears are starting to dissolve due to the advancement of smartwear technology. The aim of this Special Issue is to provide readers with cutting-edge research on adjusting to extreme uncertainty by developing theoretical, methodological, research, and applied issues within a multi-disciplinary perspective. This phenomenon is addressed by scholars interested in the topic of sportswear that conforms to the “next normal” era.In particular, this Special Issue is intended to provide scholars, researchers, and practitioners with comprehensive academic and professional insight into all parties in the value chain (from upstream to downstream, from material technologies to retail marketing) of sportswear.

Some of the topics for the Special Issue include but are not limited to:

  • l  Smartwear technology adapted to sportwear;
  •   Innovations happening within the shape wear sectors, such as engineered knit;
  •   Material science technologies applied to sportswear, such as nano-technology, microfibers, and insulators; 
  •  Eco-friendly sustainable material;
  •   Adaptability and functionality: multitask activewear and technology for sustainable styles;
  • Technologies applied to smartgears featured in sportswear to promote health and safety;
  •   Operating models and theoretical advancements propelling the sportwear industry into the next wave of growth;
  •   Environmental concerns and sustainable sportswear consumption after the inception of COVID-19;
  •   Digital transformation and omnichannel retailing of sportswear brands.

Prof. Dr. Kyung Wha Oh
Prof. Dr. Kyu-Hye Lee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable sportwear
  • the next normal
  • material technology
  • smartwear
  • digital transformation.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2057 KiB  
Article
Sportive Fashion Trend Reports: A Hybrid Style Analysis Based on Deep Learning Techniques
by Hyosun An, Sunghoon Kim and Yerim Choi
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9530; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13179530 - 24 Aug 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3258
Abstract
This study aimed to use quantitative methods and deep learning techniques to report sportive fashion trends. We collected sportive fashion images from fashion collections of the past decades and utilized the multi-label graph convolutional network (ML-GCN) model to detect and explore hybrid styles. [...] Read more.
This study aimed to use quantitative methods and deep learning techniques to report sportive fashion trends. We collected sportive fashion images from fashion collections of the past decades and utilized the multi-label graph convolutional network (ML-GCN) model to detect and explore hybrid styles. Based on the literature review, we proposed a theoretical framework to investigate sportive fashion trends. The ML-GCN was designed to classify five style categories, “street,” “retro,” “sexy,” “modern,” and “sporty,” and the predictive probabilities of the five styles of fashion images were extracted. We statistically validated the hybrid style results derived from the ML-GCN model and suggested an application method of deep learning-based trend reports in the fashion industry. This study reported sportive fashion by hybrid style dependency, forecasting, and brand clustering. We visualized the predicted probability for a hybrid style to a three-dimensional scale expected to help designers and researchers in the field of fashion to achieve digital design innovation cooperating with deep learning techniques. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sportwear in the Next Normal: Product Development and Marketing)
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14 pages, 1441 KiB  
Article
Enhancing the Sneakers Shopping Experience through Virtual Fitting Using Augmented Reality
by Ha-Lim Rhee and Kyu-Hye Lee
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6336; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13116336 - 03 Jun 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6311
Abstract
The fashion industry is undergoing a digital transformation due to the emergence of new shopping channels and external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the relationship between virtual fitting (VF) experience satisfaction, brand advocacy, mobile purchase intention, and offline purchase [...] Read more.
The fashion industry is undergoing a digital transformation due to the emergence of new shopping channels and external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the relationship between virtual fitting (VF) experience satisfaction, brand advocacy, mobile purchase intention, and offline purchase intention from an omnichannel perspective to understand how VF based on augmented reality (AR) impacts the customer purchase journey. The study also investigated the moderating effect of a customer’s product involvement, which is a personal characteristic. The results reveal that high satisfaction with the VF experience had a positive effect only on mobile purchase intentions. Brand advocacy formed after the VF experience had a positive effect on both mobile and offline purchase intentions and showed a mediating effect in the relationship between VF experience satisfaction and purchase intention. The moderating effect of product involvement was also confirmed. Moreover, a significantly negative influence of VF experience satisfaction on offline purchase intention was detected for customers who were more involved in sneakers products. These results indicate that VF, which is used as a tool in shopping apps, can achieve customer satisfaction and drive mobile purchases, thus leading to offline purchases based on brand advocacy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sportwear in the Next Normal: Product Development and Marketing)
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14 pages, 2445 KiB  
Article
Analysis of EMG Electrode Locations Using 3D Body Scanning for Digital Pattern Construction of a Smart EMG Suit
by Sojung Lee, Siyeon Kim, Daeyoung Lim, Dong-Eun Kim and Wonyoung Jeong
Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2654; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13052654 - 02 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2672
Abstract
According to recent trends, smart clothing products that can receive electromyography (EMG) signals during the wearer’s muscle activity are being developed and commercialized. On the other hand, there is a lack of knowledge on the way to specify the electrode locations on the [...] Read more.
According to recent trends, smart clothing products that can receive electromyography (EMG) signals during the wearer’s muscle activity are being developed and commercialized. On the other hand, there is a lack of knowledge on the way to specify the electrode locations on the clothing pattern. Accurately located EMG electrodes in the clothing support the reliability and usefulness of the products. Moreover, a systematic process to construct anatomically validated smart clothing digitally should be performed to facilitate the application of a mass-customized manufacturing system. The current study explored the EMG measurement locations of nine muscles and analyzed them in association with various anthropometric points and even postures based on the 3D body scan data. The results suggest that several line segments of the patterns can be substituted by size-dependent equations for the electrodes in place. As a final step, a customized pattern of a smart EMG suit was developed virtually. The current study proposes a methodology to develop body-size dependent equations and patterns of a smart EMG suit with well-located electrodes using 3D scan data. These results suggest ways to produce smart EMG suits in response to impending automation and mass customization of the clothing manufacturing system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sportwear in the Next Normal: Product Development and Marketing)
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