- Fitness tracker brand Whoop has launched a new range of high-fashion sportswear
- Project Terrain is a “technical clothing system” designed by A-COLD-WALL founder, Samuel Ross MBE.
- Layer 1 of the collection includes underwear and outerwear for men and women, with Any-Wear Pods in the shorts to store your device without a wrist.
Fitness tracker Whoop is launching its own clothing line with a difference: a high-fashion capsule collection rather than the usual products, created in collaboration with a famous fashion designer.
The clothing features innovations such as reflective patches for running visibility, windows on the sleeves allowing runners to see their watches, and Any-Wear Pods allowing wearers to cut their Whoops off the body. But they’re all, basically, expensive sportswear with a sleek black look, as you can see in some promotional photos.
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“Over the years, I’ve had a deep love for Whoop and their design excellence, and with Project Terrain, I wanted to focus on the mutual feeling you get when you meet another Whoop user,” Ross writes in the collection’s press release.
“I wanted to make sure we were creating intentional pieces with their visibility of Whoop and creating a new identity of what it means to wear Whoop. Ultimately, it becomes its own visual language of hardware with beautiful design anchored first in high performance.”
The collection also arrives with two new Whoop groups for the 5.0 and Whoop MG.
When I learned that Whoop was making its first forays from fitness tracker to lifestyle brand, taking on Nike and Lululemon, I expected this sort of thing. Whoop, as a premium product, is often seen on the wrists of members of high-end gyms like Equinox and Barry’s, and is introducing its first collection to this audience.
From calling each wave in the collection a “layer” to insisting that it’s not a merch line but a “wearable system designed for exploration,” the capsule collection mixes a good deal of impenetrable high fashion with the technical jargon you’d expect from Nike’s line of high-end marathon running shoes.
However, there are some interesting innovations here, such as built-in modules that your Whoop can slide into for easy off-body tracking, but there’s a lot of disconnect or lack of consideration for other technical aspects.
For example, we have reflective patches on jackets and shorts for running in low light conditions, but the entire collection is jet black, making it a bit of a risky choice if you want to be seen. Most sleepwear for running is rubbish but black. You also have windows on the wrist of your running jacket, but Whoop doesn’t even have a screen, making this design feature a bit redundant. However, it would work great with the best running watches.
These disconnects prevent the value of the collection from reaching the heights of a complete “wearable system” and bring it down to the level of “expensive athleisure”, especially at high price points. But the simple price barrier has never stopped companies like Lululemon, Nike and Gym+Coffee. You can view the collection here.
