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.