Designing Performance Sportswear

Performance Sportswear Design BA (Hons)

Those were the days when you pulled on a t-shirt to go training. If you are into getting fit, paying sports like rugby, football or golf, or any other outdoor pursuits, you will most probably already be wearing performance sportswear such as baselayers. 


We take most of these things for granted. You just go to sport shops or online, find the products we like, choose size, colour, delivery address and payment method and we are ready to go. The only challenge with buying this kind of clothing is the price. You pay a premium for this kind of gear.

But once you have bought performance sportswear, you cannot go back to the old T-shirts. They just won't do the job as well as a well designed baselayer from companies such as Under Armour or Canterbury.


I came across something the other day which started explaining the price of this clothing. It is not just about something to wear but to develop and design technical sportswear requires skills and to have skills you need education and/or training.

Well - this is the thing! You can go to Uni and get a degree in this stuff. I picked up the following on the University College of Falmouth's website:


Performance Sportswear Design (BA) Hons

Course description

From research and drawing to scientific exploration and fabric testing, students experience all aspects of designing performance sportswear; through both hand drawing and digital technologies, students demonstrate their design ideas as well as experiment with the latest fabrics, from neoprene to Polartec, and construction methods like flatlocking and blindstitching.

Course modules
Level 1: Design and construction; designer in society; production and presentation; industrial, professional and global contexts.
Level 2: Human factors; computer-aided design and manufacturing; international branding; professional practice: work placement.
Level 3: Professional design practice; professional design project proposal; dissertation; final project.

The course if a full time, 3 year education. 

If designing and manufacturing sportswear today takes a university degree to achieve, that could be one of the reasons for the price of developing and producing it. The R&D as well as marketing budgets of someone like Nike and Adidas are astronomical and not all their products fly long term as fashion plays an increasingly large role in how we choose our kit. No wonder successful sports men, women and teams are paid a fortune in sponsorship to wear their gear to raise awareness of the latest in sports gear.


But despite the investment you need to make to have these items, you can truly feel the benefits of wearing them as they prolong the time you can stay active by offering protection from cold weather, heat, wet conditions and any mobility restriction. 

Base Layer Sportswear

Technical sportswear is bringing you the best in base layer compression technology whatever you get up to in the great outdoors. This kind of clothing used to be worn only by the top sports men and athletics. Now brands like Canterbury and Under Armour are bringing these products to all who are practicing outdoor sports and other pursuits.

Under Armour Base Layer

The performance benefits of compression garments make them an essential item in the kit bag of any sportsman, woman or junior. This kind of clothing provides the flexibility to layer your clothing.  You can dress comfortably for your sport whilst still looking good. You can mix and match your layers to suit your needs.

Typically, there are three layers;

The base layer keeps the skin dry followed by a mid layer providing warmth and an outer layer that provides wet and wind protection. Technical sportswear often combines two of the three layers providing either comfort and warmth or warmth and waterproof in one increasing your mobility and reducing the weight of clothing.

The purpose of the important inner layer is to draw the sweat away from the skin making you feel warmer and more comfortable.  The best materials used are the so called wicking materials. Various materials are used for base layer technical clothing with slightly varying characteristics.

Synthetics are a good choice as they do not absorb moisture but transfer it well. Wool also has good wicking properties but can be itchy. However, it stays odour free better than synthetics. Silk feels the best but is weaker and harder to take care of. Cotton is comfortable when dry but absorbs moisture easily and is slow to dry out.

You need to adjust your clothes to the conditions in which you are exercising. It is critical to make sure that you stay warm when it is cold and that you don’t over heat when it is warm. Using clothing in the right materials, in layers and with vents will help your body adjust to the external conditions.

Base Layer

There is a choice of products to help you put together the right combination for your activity. You can buy base layers in short sleeve or long sleeve, as heat gear and cold gear which comes in standard as well as sub cero insulation. You can have shorts or leggings. All these product come in various types such as compression which is moulded to sit very tight for performance enhancing and muscle protecting and healing qualities, and standard which is purely intended to keep you dry, comfortable and dare I say it – fashionable.

You see men, women, boys, girls and families wearing this kind of clothing now for all out door pursuits such as football, rugby, golf, skiing, hiking, athletics, riding, archery, hockey, ice skating, fishing and so on, the list is almost endless.

There is also a range of other technical wear products such as underwear, hats and gloves available in various styles. 

All the products come in various sizes and colours and are available for men, women and junior.