What tracksuits were worn in the 80s: the history of the tracksuit

Today it is difficult to imagine your closet without a tracksuit. It has long since become not a uniform for sports, but a comfortable, stylish everyday wear. But for this sports fashion had to go a long way of development. We tell you how the tracksuit has changed from the 50s to the present day.

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Those very “sweatpants” and alcoholic T-shirts

The middle of the last century – a period quite difficult for domestic sports: wars, change of political course, the absence of our national team at the Olympic Games – all this contributed to a significant lag of the sports industry of the Union from the Western powers. In 1952, the USSR returned to the Olympic podium, taking part in the Summer Games in Helsinki. From this moment, we can talk about the culture of sportswear in the country.

It can be said that domestic sports fashion began with knitted “sweatpants”. It was the legendary blue sweatpants with stretched knees that became a symbol of belonging to sports for several decades to come.

Sweatpants were intended for any occasion: jogging at the stadium, morning exercise on the balcony (so far everything is logical), meeting with friends, going to the store – everywhere where clothes were supposed to be present, they dominated.

A little later a blue “masterka” with a lock on the collar was added to the training pants. It became a real symbol of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. It is said that already in the 60’s a sweater with a buttoned collar and the inscription “USSR” became a very rare product – it was hard to buy an ordinary person, and it was often inherited from the older generation.

Another important sports element of that time was a white cotton T-shirt with wide straps. Alcoholic T-shirt, as it would later be called, quickly entered the Soviet man’s household and was considered both an element of underwear and part of the sports uniform.

author and creator of the street culture blog First Soupe

It is indicative that such “alcoholic T-shirts” have a bad reputation not only in Russia. In the United States, the undershirt is called a “wife beater,” literally “wife beater.” In 1947, a Detroit man named James Hartford was arrested for beating his wife, and a picture of him wearing one became the reason for the unofficial name “wife beater”. In 1951, the even more dubious image of the linen T-shirt was reinforced by the movie A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marlon Brando, and the T-shirt began to be associated with uneducated and rough working-class Italian-Americans.

In the 60s, red and blue tracksuit models appeared on the shelves, blatantly copied from adidas. Of course, there were imported items, but these were very rare isolated cases and they were kept for special outings.

The very definition of “adidas” appeared around the same time. Then people learned that any imported thing is a firm! It was this concept that would become a defining belonging to certain strata of society in the 90s.

Adidas shoes appeared in the USSR under Stalin, but were available only to selected athletes. To get the coveted sneakers, not to mention tracksuits, could only athletes representing the country at the highest international level. With the beginning of Khrushchev’s “thaw”, the country’s leadership gave permission for mass orders of clothing, shoes and equipment from the German company for various sports teams.

author and creator of the street culture blog First Soupe

One of the earliest mentions of adidas shoes on the feet of Soviet athletes comes from an interview with Nina Ponomaryova, discus thrower and 1952 Olympic champion. Her quote: “I am so ancient that Adi Dassler himself measured my feet in Helsinki to make shoes. Apparently he didn’t like my rubber slippers very much.” According to her, the outfit at the Olympic Games in Helsinki played not the least role: “At least we were dressed up for the Games – we were given suits. We looked more decent than the Hungarians and Romanians – they were poor.

Neon and a lot of synthetics

In the 1980s there was a real boom in sports fashion both in the world and in the USSR. Clothes originally designed for sports and active leisure became fashionable.

This decade is considered one of the most tasteless, but in sports everything was more positive than ever: neon colors, tights, sports leotards and gaiters became a symbol of the new era.

If we were to choose just one image that inspired a whole generation, it would certainly be the American actress Jane Fonda in an aerobics class – aerobics made the whole world sick. Sporty style became a mast-have and was broadcast from the pages of magazines, from TV screens and at any media events. Tights, sneakers, elastic hairbands, t-shirts, baseball caps and gym bags became fashionable.

At this time, baggy suits with screaming colors made of synthetic materials were taking their share of glory. This phenomenon is understandably short-lived (there is no comfort and functionality of a “balonovy” kit), but it leaves a big mark on the culture, associating such kits with backyard brawls and the smell of crime.

The Olympics-80, which took place in Moscow, gave us the first rudiments of really comfortable and convenient sportswear: the olimpika still symbolizes quality, simplicity and lightness.

The criminal and technological 90s

In the 1980s and 1990s, more and more fashion designers around the world began to address the theme of sport. Elements of sporty style were combined with other elements and made their way onto the catwalks. The boundaries between activewear and sportswear are almost blurred, with people choosing to wear tracksuits and sneakers more and more as casual wear.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Soviet people, not at all spoiled by variety and choice, began to buy up everything that was previously unavailable: people began to turn en masse to Western brands, not distinguishing between original products and artisanal fakes. From the 80’s to the 90’s the fashion for acid colors and unisex style flows.

Many people associate the first half of the 90s with gangsters. If the “new Russians” wore crimson jackets, the ordinary members of the criminal world chose an emphatically sporty style. In this environment it was cool to wear the same “branded” tracksuit, which was combined with massive sneakers or patent shoes.

Another trend of the decade was a fierce struggle for athletic performance, so sportswear began to undergo another transition: now manufacturers are trying to conquer the world with aerodynamic properties and technological materials.

During these years, men’s running tights, women’s running leotards, bras and tops appeared on domestic counters.

So did Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, and now every resident of Russia of the noughties. This trend was called “sport-chic” for its pretentiousness and even, in some places, vulgarity.

Public figures began to appear in public in pants with stripes, sneakers on wedges with the addition of bright accessories or jewelry, on the streets began to meet young people in tracksuits with sequins and pants on an extremely low fit.

Essentials

In 2020, the planet was hit by a virus that obliged us to radically change our habits and “legitimize” comfort at all stages of our social life. Sporty style has become a driving force not only for mass-market, but also for luxury brands.

It’s fair to say that even before the pandemic, mainstream fashionistas and Influencers began promoting the comfort and texture of tracksuits to the masses. This has yielded results – the last five years have been characterized by a huge influx of brands that specialize in mono-production – sewing exclusively knitted sets.

Today, tracksuits are worn even at work, what to speak of walks and meetings with friends. The choice of such products is just huge: dense with lining or thin for active pursuits, straight or gathered with elastic bands on the shin, bright or in pastel colors, monochrome and minimalist or with a lot of details.

In the past, moving further away from the stadiums, we encountered people in tracksuits less and less often. Today, this variable is completely independent of place, age or occasion.