{"id":329,"date":"2012-05-10T13:07:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T13:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/?p=329"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:01:49","slug":"growth-of-running-apparel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/running-apparel-growth-report","title":{"rendered":"Growth of Running Apparel"},"content":{"rendered":"

State of the Sport Part I: Growth of Women’s Running<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Women's<\/a>

Women’s Running Apparel<\/p><\/div>\n

Women\u2019s Running Apparel and Shoes<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the surge in women\u2019s running, both athletic shoe and large apparel manufacturing companies have shifted their marketing efforts in order to meet demand, and new companies have emerged to fulfill a growing need. These companies have found strategic ways to attract their growing target demographic: female runners. With women seeking both performance and style, manufacturers have specifically designed running apparel and gear for the woman\u2019s body including running skirts, female-fit tanks\/shirts, running bras, tights, capris and shoes all in vibrant colors.<\/p>\n

Early in women\u2019s running, there was no such category as women\u2019s running apparel. In fact, it wasn\u2019t until the late 1970s that the running bra was invented, based on the prototype of two male jockstraps being sewn together. The idea was to provide women with more support and less chafing during their runs (this product was initially called the \u201cjockbra\u201d, and later, earned the official name Jogbra).<\/p>\n

Nike, a leader in product innovation, has been part of this trend. In the mid-1980s, Nike developed a women\u2019s \u201clast\u201d for their women\u2019s shoe line. Prior to this time, any female looking for a running shoe had to purchase a men\u2019s shoe in a smaller size. But the shoe lasts used for men\u2019s running shoes weren\u2019t effective at addressing the biomechanical and anatomical differences for women, such as the ratio of heel-to-forefoot, arch support and the pronation pattern due to hip alignment. Most running shoe companies today offer a full line of women\u2019s running shoes that provide cushioning and stability specifically for the needs of female runners.<\/p>\n

According to Running USA\u2019s 2012 Women\u2019s National Runner Survey, 65% of the female respondents spent more than $90 on running shoes last year and 80% spent $100 or greater on running apparel in the last 12 months. In both cases, these female core runners were more apt to buy from the local running store.<\/p>\n

this article continues on from – 2012 State of the Sport \u2013 Part I: Growth of Women\u2019s Running<\/a><\/strong> and is followed by – Why She Runs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State of the Sport Part I: Growth of Women’s Running Women\u2019s Running Apparel and Shoes With the surge in women\u2019s running, both athletic shoe and large apparel manufacturing companies have shifted their marketing efforts in order to meet demand, and new companies have emerged to fulfill a growing need. These companies have found strategic ways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,6,93],"tags":[91,118,90,82,92,8],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apparel","category-featured","category-news","tag-91","tag-apparel","tag-footwear","tag-growth","tag-state-of-the-sport","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}