Men’s gym wear — why does so much of it hide the physique?
I’m curious to hear what both men and women think about men’s gym wear, particularly from bodybuilding and fitness brands like GASP, Better Bodies and Gorilla Wear rather than general sports brands.
Question for the guys:
For those of you who train 5–7 days a week, put serious effort into nutrition and spend years building your physique with everything that goes into it — wouldn’t you want gym clothes that actually enhance and show off some of that hard work?
A lot of men’s gym clothing seems to do the exact opposite. T-shirts, hoodies, sweaters and jackets are often extremely oversized and long, sometimes practically reaching mid-thigh like mini dresses. It’s almost as if men don’t train glutes or aren’t supposed to care about showing their proportions.
I’m not suggesting men should be walking around in crop tops showing their belly buttons or wearing scrunch leggings. 😅 There’s a huge middle ground.
Why not have fitted, physique enhancing T-shirts that emphasize the shoulders, chest and arms but finish roughly at the waistband/pants line, rather than hanging well below it and covering your entire glutes and upper thighs?
The same applies to pants. If you’ve spent years developing your quads, hamstrings and glutes, why shouldn’t men’s gym pants be designed to complement that? They could fit closer around the glutes and thighs to emphasize developed legs without being skin-tight, then taper toward the calves. Instead, a lot of men’s bodybuilding pants are so loose that they completely hide the lower-body physique.
Meanwhile, women’s fitness clothing seems to have gone almost completely in the opposite direction. Sometimes it feels harder to find a women’s fitness top that isn’t cropped, fitted or specifically designed to complement the physique.
Question for the women:
What would you think about men wearing more physique focused gym clothing — shorter fitted T-shirts and hoodies that emphasize the shoulders, waist and glutes, combined with athletic pants designed to complement developed quads and glutes? Would you find that more attractive/flattering, or do you prefer the oversized style that's currently common?
And for the guys:
If bodybuilding brands offered clothing like this, would you actually buy and wear it?
