Activewear Hacks: How To Legitimise Wearing It All The Time

Let’s be real here, activewear is insanely comfortable. It’s also really quite practical, doesn’t need ironing and is now super snazzy and well, hip. In days long gone, gym wear was usually characterised by baggy t-shirts, white sneakers, and fluffy socks up to your calf-shelf.

An active fashion revolution has completely revamped our sweat-stuff and the footpaths are lousy with people cutting slick figures in lycra and saying stuff like ‘Since I made the change to Coolmax it’s like cycling in a suit of cool air’. Sports fashion has come a long way and personally I RESENT being told it’s a faux pas to wear it when I’m not being active (ie. all the time). 

Here are some personally tried and tested tips and tricks to legitimise your activewear when you're shopping for groceries, pleading guilty in the District Court, or doing absolutely nothing. And thanks to 24/7 gyms, these hacks will work at any time of the day or night.

1. Put sports tape on the back of your leg or arm, or strap an icepack to your ankle or knee. With any luck someone might think you’re an Olympian and let you cut the queue at Countdown.
2. Try to go without a bag (unless it’s also activewear) and just carry your loose essentials: keys, wallet, phone. The haphazardness lends to the drama of the narrative you’re trying to weave as goal-kicking superhuman just running a few errands on her way back from the gym because time is money and this bod don’t come cheap. 
3. Wear sunscreen on your pulse points. People in your vicinity will catch a whiff and just KNOW that you have big plans for the day that require flexibility, mobility and a lot of direct sunlight. Even if you’re not going outside. Like at all. 
4. Wear some of those toe-shoes people use to emulate running barefoot. Only a truly active person with absolutely no time to change would actually wear those things into a cafe. 
5. Eat something spicy and chase it up with a dewy face mist for a flushed and sweaty look that’ll make you look like a damn aerobics instructor. Really complete the illusion by panting deeply when you place your order at the drive-thru.
6. If you were active at one point in the morning and just haven’t bothered to get changed, cultivate the grimy build-up in your follicles and help it along with some product for a shaggy, treadmill-tousled do that will throw shade on all the other posers.
7. Order your iced latte to go and have them make it in a protein shake bottle. You can wander around sipping on that sucker for hours and dupe everyone into thinking you live life in the anabolic window. 
8. Carry an ordinary bath towel under your arm. Even if you’re in full make-up and hoop earrings; people trust the towel. 
9. Pimp your wrists with some henna tatts. People will assume you’re big into yoga so you can swan about in activewear and flip-flops without having to bother with lace-up shoes.
10. If you’re grocery shopping, shove some protein powder, tofu, or a bag of oats in your trolley to ward off potentially derisive looks. Sport tape or ice packs work equally well. Do NOT buy Gatorade. 

If you're considering wearing your activewear to legitimately workout, then try one of these spots.