Fabletics denim.
Courtesy: Fabletics
Athletic apparel maker Fabletics is launching its first denim collection, signaling the once hot athleisure category is starting to slow down, the company announced Tuesday.
The collection, launching online and in select stores on Thursday, will include 11 styles and seven washes across both women’s and men’s. Items will be priced between $79.95 and $174.95, depending on whether shoppers are members of Fabletics’ subscription program.
“We’ve had over a million of our customers tell us that if Fabletics offered denim, they’d be highly interested in it, and that’s really what got us started on our journey of expanding into the denim category,” Fabletics co-founder and CEO Adam Goldenberg told CNBC in an interview. “We do believe denim is on an upswing. We’ve seen that, you know, we started [looking into denim] over two years ago, so it’s the right time.”
Fabletics, which earned more than $1 billion in revenue last year, is expanding into denim as consumer preferences change. The “soft” type of dressing that became popular during the pandemic, featuring comfortable joggers, sports bras and hoodies, has fallen out of favor with some shoppers.
Instead, as hybrid work begins to fade, many consumers are choosing to dress back up again and are opting for denim over leggings as the casual staple that works both on the weekends and at the office.
Fabletics denim.
Courtesy: Fabletics
While the athleisure market is still expanding, that rate of growth has wobbled in North America, data from market intelligence company Euromonitor International show.
The sports apparel market is projected to grow 2.3% in North America in 2026 from 2025, down from 3.1% between 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, the denim market is expected to grow 2.1% this year, up from 0.7% between 2023 and 2024.
Globally, the athleisure market grew 2% last year while the denim market grew 4%, according to separate figures from GlobalData.
“What we found coming out of the pandemic is like, comforts become king,” said Goldenberg. “So even now, as consumers are, I would say, dressing up more they’re still wanting to do it in a way that feels good and is more comfortable, right? And we heard that very loudly from our customers when we were developing denim.”
The U.S. has fallen in and out of love with denim for decades, which has plagued fashion and led major apparel companies like Levi Strauss, American Eagle and Gap to structure their businesses so they’re not as exposed to changing styles. Each company is a market leader in denim, but they also have their own athleisure brands, which shields them from shifts in fashion.
Changing trends have proven more difficult for niche players like Lululemon, which boomed during the pandemic and is now falling behind as denim reigns supreme again.
Lululemon has worked for several years to expand outside of its core yoga pant assortment into more lifestyle categories, including outerwear, T-shirts and made for work trousers, as fashion preferences shifted. The move has allowed Lululemon to increase its total addressable market, but some critics have said it’s alienated Lululemon’s core customers and contributed to a slowdown in growth in the retailer’s core Americas market.
Nike‘s former CEO John Donahoe grew the retailer into a roughly $50 billion brand by focusing on lifestyle and streetwear styles. While the strategy briefly led to growth, it ultimately contributed to a decline in market share because it distracted the company from its core, performance assortment. Now, Nike’s new CEO Elliott Hill is working to refocus the brand on sports to win back that core, athlete consumer.
Goldenberg disagreed that Lululemon’s challenges came from expanding into new categories and instead said Fabletics, along with up and coming private athleisure brands Alo Yoga and Vuori, are taking market share from incumbents. He also said Fabletics’ expansion isn’t coming at the expense of innovation in its core athleisure products, either.
“All these category expansions need to be ‘and’ and not ‘and or’ right?” said Goldenberg. “So we need to be doubling and tripling down on our innovation and activewear while we make sure that we’re launching denim in a way that, like, is truly the best product out there.”
He added that Fabletics has already proven it can successfully scale into new categories, which has helped the company get ahead of schedule two years into its five-year plan of doubling revenue and quadrupling profits. In 2020, it launched a men’s category, which is now more than a $300 million business, and its scrubs line, which has grown to $75 million in a little over two years.
Goldenberg said activewear is still Fabletics’ main priority, but category expansion will be critical in winning more sales from its current customers and acquiring new shoppers.
“I’ll give you scrubs as an example,” said Goldenberg. “We’re now bringing in thousands of new customers a month into the Fabletics family through them. First purchasing scrubs, but within 90 days, well over 50% of them have also purchased activewear.”
