Sporty and Rich? How luxury ‘Quiet Sportswear’ comfortably took over Regent Street

Once full of flailing US-based preppy retailers like Banana Republic, J.Crew and Brooks Brothers, Regent Street’s elegant Portland stone curve became a graveyard for brands caught on the hop as consumers moved on.

The pandemic blip aside, a flagship store on Regent Street, particularly by overseas-based brands, was always a huge statement of both intent and ambition. It ain’t cheap. Regent Street is often the stepping stone for brands crossing the Atlantic and gaining a foothold in the European market.

Lately London’s premier shopping street has seen its Regency facades stealthily filled with a collection of understated luxury sportswear brands. Lululemon, Alo Yoga, On, Gymshark and, most recently, Vuori, have created a ‘Quiet Sportswear’ revolution on London’s prime retail thoroughfare. Quiet Sportswear is the relaxed sporty take on quiet luxury, meaning minimal branding, aspirational marketing, neutral colours and premium fabrications, living far beyond the gym.

Opened in October, Vuori Founder and CEO, Joe Kudla was joined by celebrities such as Lucien Laviscount, Sabrina Elba, Ed Westwick, Amy Jackson Westwick and ultra runner William Goodge to toast his new store. The brand was recently given a valuation of $5.5 billion after announcing a $825 million investment led by General Atlantic and Stripes.

Vuori’s Regent Street flagship store, its second location in London, has joined Covent Garden with a third planned for Chelsea with the addition of a fitness studio. Previously filled by Hunter, and then Fabletics, the slightly tricky location on the curve of Regent Street has been given a taste of Vuori’s home state of California. Clean and warm to match the brand’s soft aesthetic, the selection of premium gym and post-gym women’s and men’s clothing will have to shift to maintain the incredible valuation.

Over the past two years, a succession of global luxury Quiet Sportswear brands have opened on Regent Street. British brand Gymshark cemented its meteoric rise with a huge flagship store in 2022, it was joined by another global upstart, the Swiss trainer specialist, On, in 2023, and, this summer, US brand Alo Yoga opened a 10,000 sq ft flagship store, its second location in London, following a store on Chelsea’s King’s Road. Alo Yoga has opened a further store in West London on Brompton Road and a fourth Covent Garden location is preparing to open soon.

Arguably, the brand to pioneer the entire concept of luxury Quiet Sportswear, Lululemon, arrived on Regent Street in 2016. Lululemon currently has 20 stores in the UK. Branded hoardings are visible on a new Regent Street location just down from the current flagship store. Proving its popularity, the brand recently relocated and upsized its Covent Garden location.

These brands are speaking to an international audience on Regent Street which they hope will resonate into their domestic markets. Brands are opening in similar neighbourhoods as clusters, hoping for an amount of consumer crossover, particularly for lesser-known brands in the UK like Vuori and Alo Yoga. There’s no coincidence that so many of these brands are opening in affluent West London. Add a sports cap and designer handbag and this is the uniform of the rich today. Look at any reality TV and this look resonates with consumers; sporty and rich!

The market is getting more crowded, but the appetite for luxury leggings and puffer jacket combos, particularly in womenswear, feels insatiable. Overall, everything is about comfort, the most pivotal word in fashion of the past ten years. This is the type of leisurewear that makes you look and feel good, it’s easy, thanks to the better fabrications and fits, giving you the bounce to continue on your fitness journey or at least pretend to.

So much of this is built on aspiration. The aspiration to be fit - in more than one sense - and healthy. This is the world of fitness influencers and gym instructors as celebrities and all the hot people are wearing this stuff.

It is all about £100 leggings and £50 tees, figures once baulked at for gym gear, but as soon as people realised they were living in these clothes and becoming their everyday go-to favourites, they quickly turned into must-have basics and are seen as an investment. They look better for longer and once you’ve tired, you’re often hooked, ask your friends.

With a large and growing audience you can fast understand the steep company valuations. Today, Lululemon is valued at nearly $40 billion.

What Quiet Sportswear brands offer is an attractive aspirational lifestyle and the attainable entry point into it. Expect to see similar brands, that are blowing up, to join them on London’s newest sports hotspot.