Tips For Choosing Athletic Apparel

When you’re working out, often it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money on fancy brand name clothing. Often generic brands are just as good as the more costly brand names. It’s just a matter of taking the time to make sure you’ve purchased the workout clothing made out of the right material to allow your skin to breathe, as well as the clothing that fits you properly.

Too often people make the mistake of rushing through their clothing selection when picking out workout clothing. To make sure you have the best athletic clothing, it takes just as much time during the selection process as the time it takes to find the perfect fitting jeans. While it’s not necessary to buy brand name products, you should still try to choose clothing that’s of good enough quality that it’ll last through the rigors of sports, exercise and many, many washes.

Fabric selection is definitely one aspect you need to consider during your selection process. When it comes to workout clothing, not all fabrics are equal. They’re not even equal when choosing clothing for different types of exercises. Some fabrics absorb sweat; others pull it away from your skin. What you want the fabric to do with your sweat depends on the type of exercise or sports you’re doing.

Wicking fabrics are popular because they’re breathable. Made out of synthetic materials, these fabrics are designed to allow the sweat to evaporate quickly which, in theory, is supposed to keep your body cool. Make sure you choose a good quality wicking fabric because the lower end kind will end up containing the sweat so that you feel like you’re working out in a garbage bag. Fabrics containing polypropylene are good choices. If you must have brand names, consider Supplex or Coolmax. Choose wicking fabrics for exercises where there’s a very good chance that you’ll be sweating a lot. Wearing absorbent fabrics when completing exercises that make you sweat a lot will end up soaking your clothing and making you feel uncomfortable.

Cotton is one of those types of absorbent fabrics that aren’t suitable in all situations. It’s a natural fabric, but it tends to absorb moisture which means the clothing won’t pull away from your body when you’re sweating. It’ll stick reducing the chance of the sweat evaporating. Cotton also often gets heavier when wet. But it’s good for light stretching, warm ups and sometimes even cool down activities.

The fabrics you should generally avoid when purchasing wholesale athletic apparel is anything that doesn’t let your skin breath. This means stay away from rubber based or plastic based materials. Some proponents of these materials say that encasing your body in a plastic type fabric will create a sauna effect where you’ll sweat out the weight. There is an element to truth to that in that you may quickly lose water weight. However, you run the risk of overheating which increases your chance of fainting. It’s better to make sure all workout clothing, including wholesale athletic apparel, you purchase is made of more breathable fabrics.