TRACKSUITS

What the tracksuit is

The tracksuit is the garment the public associates with a national team: the matching jacket and pants worn travelling, warming up, on the bench and on the podium. Within an issued kit it is the one entry that is two garments sold as a unit — and the least likely piece of any set to have been raced in.

It is also the oldest idea in the modern sports wardrobe. A French brand put sweatpants and a matching top together in 1939 and called it the Sunday Suit; adidas industrialised the idea in the late sixties; and a tracksuit named after a Munich track and field champion was on sale while she won two golds in the stadium. The thread above runs from that suit to this rail.

From this series · in the archiveNike Rosa & Co. Pro Elite 2023 Storm Fit TracksuitA Storm Fit set — the weatherproof tracksuit of a pro team's current cycle.300,00 €View piece →

Athletics is where the garment keeps its original job. Everywhere else the tracksuit became streetwear; on a championship team it is still equipment — the uniform of every minute the athlete is visible and not racing.

From the Sunday Suit to Munich

The dates on the thread are worth spelling out, because the tracksuit's history runs through athletics twice. Le Coq Sportif's 1939 Sunday Suit established the form: trousers and top, cut from the same cloth, worn together. adidas began tracksuit production at the Schwahn factory in 1966, and within a year had signed a young Franz Beckenbauer to the first athlete-endorsed model — by 1969 the entire West German football team trained in matching suits.

Then Munich. For the 1972 Games — the home Olympics for which adidas launched the Trefoil — the company named a tracksuit after Heide Rosendahl, the German track and field star of those Games. She won the long jump by one centimetre, anchored the 4×100 to gold in a world record, and took pentathlon silver. A tracksuit with an athlete's name on it has been part of athletics kit ever since.

The eighties and nineties took the garment to the street — shell suits, hip hop, terrace fashion — and the sport kept its version: quieter, badged, issued. That split is why a team tracksuit reads instantly as kit and never as fashion.

How a set is built

A modern issued tracksuit is the jacket family and the pants family folded into one entry.

• The unitJacket and pants issued and sold together — matching shell, lining and badging from a single kit cycle.
• The weather splitLightweight sets for mild seasons, Storm and Storm Fit sets for wind and rain — the same split as the standalone jackets and pants.
• The fabricPolyester shells throughout — every set in this archive declares it, with nylon and spandex appearing in shells and cuffs.
• The anklesTrack sets carry cuff zips — the pants half obeys the same exit-over-spikes rule as standalone track pants.
• The badgeFederation crest or team mark on the chest and hip — the identity that makes a matching set a team set.
• The ceremony jobThe tracksuit is what medal winners wear on the rostrum — the formal uniform of the team's public minutes.

From this series · in the archiveINEOS X Nike NN Running Team Pro Elite 2023 Women Lightweight TracksuitA lightweight set — the travel tracksuit of a professional running team.240,00 €View piece →

Because sets get separated — a jacket survives, its pants do not — a complete tracksuit is scarcer than either half alone, and this rail is where the survivors live.

How to choose yours

Choosing a tracksuit is choosing the complete document of a kit cycle.

• Complete sets firstA matched jacket-and-pants unit is scarcer than either piece alone — if the set is together, that is the value.
• Match the seasonThe set carries its cycle's colours and badge — it is the wearable summary of that team's year.
• Weather picks the shellLightweight for travel and mild seasons, Storm for weather — the label names the job.
• Street sizing, two garmentsJacket and pants each run true to ordinary sizing — check both halves, since sets were worn unevenly.
• Zips are the health checkMain zip, cuff zips, drawcord — the only failure points a tracksuit has; test all three.
• Rare marks matterTraining-issue and marked-rare sets — like the rare pro-team set in this rail — are the low-quantity end of an already small run.

From this series · in the archiveNike NN Running Team Pro Elite Training Rare TracksuitA training-issue set marked rare — the scarce end of an already small run.180,00 €View piece →

Eighty-seven years after the Sunday Suit, the tracksuit is still what a team puts on when it wants to look like a team — which is exactly what a collector is buying.