There are many men (and women) who are either professional athletes and sportspeople or who simply lead a very sports-orientated life. But their big fashion faux pas is that many of them keep wearing their sports clothes and accessories in their everyday life. How many times have you seen a man or a woman in a tracksuit shopping for groceries?
A lot of people might not realize this, but tracksuits are like pajamas. They have a special purpose and it’s best that they are only used for that occasion. We know though, that many sporty men sincerely don’t know what to wear outside the gym and feel that if they were to “dress up” it would be too “dressed up” and it would not match their personality.
Today we want to give you the tools you can use in order to look decent in something else than a track suit. It’s easier than you think! We will look at some inspiration and draw the essential lessons that any man can apply.
There are alternatives to tracksuits and we want to give you some hints;
To begin, we thought “where can you see fancy athletes?” We came to the conclusion that the best place to look for is the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. If they can pull it off, so can you.
So, to begin, we will look at two photos and see what we can learn from them.
The Dutch Olympic delegation
We chose to have a look at the Dutch Olympic delegation and the way the USA represented itself at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, UK.
The US Olympians walk the “runway”
OK, so what can we learn from them:
1. The outfits they are wearing are very simple: pants, shirts, jackets, shoes, socks and ties. No vests, pocket squares, or other things that might make them feel uncomfortable. This is what you should learn too: have a few pieces that are always available and which are extremely simple and go together well.
2. Speaking of going together well, how do these outfits look this good if they are so simple? The secret is in the colors: the color combinations are big contrasts and they really make each other stand out: white and blue, brown and very bright orange etc. To learn more about mixing colors, read our guide to choosing colors
3. The cut. The lines of the outfits flow very easily, they are not too straight and therefore confer dynamism, which is something athletes need.
4. Don’t go for too dressy shoes. If you are someone who wears sneakers everyday, don’t go for a too dressy shoe all of the sudden. It can make you uncomfortable. Shoes come in different levels of “dressy”, you can learn that by reading our guide to dress shoes.
We always say that you can and probably should have a piece of accessory that speaks a lot about your personality. For sportsmen, watches are a great choice, not only because they are beautiful, but they are also very practical. Steve Christensen is a man who practiced action sports and was frustrated that couldn’t find a watch to express that in his spare time. So he started his own company called Novo Watch. What Novo Watch does, is that it provides original and may we say, rather personal watches to those looking for something different. These watches, however, are not only for sportsmen, they are for everyone (men and women) who aspires to the mindset they represent.
A great watch by Novo Watch
To give you additional information, we need to remind you that really sporty people might have one part of their body more developed than the others, so the size of your clothes can be a little hard to determine. This is why you can always rely on a good tailor. Just buy clothes that are a little bigger than you are and have them tailored to your body. You will see miracles.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. Do you have a sporty personality? How do you balance the work-out clothes with the casual and formal clothes? Share your thoughts below!
