Valletta's first product was a tracksuit and it has been our speciality ever since.
Valletta™ Tracksuits | Our Speciality | Our Pride
History of Tracksuits
Made up holiday or not, today is “international tracksuit day” and there’s no question that it’s a cultural icon in its own right.
Tracksuits, it’s an item that’s not just adapted through the decades, but embodies sportswear’s integration into fashion—well before “cozy boy” and “athleisure” hit the menswear lexicon.
In the ‘60s, as the mid-century prosperity gave way to “space-age” technology, the tracksuit was born.
these early iterations set up the foundations for the modern-day tracksuit: a monochromatic pant and jacket set. Worn almost exclusively before or after sports, it was in the ‘70s that tracksuits began to blend with fashion.
For a few reasons, the ‘70s are when the tracksuit became a non-athletic staple. Functionally speaking the tracksuit owes much to both jogging and mountain climbing. With jogging’s (soft “J,” natch) popularity rising in the 1970s, and the interest in personal fitness, tracksuits became the go-to gear for the recreational athlete.
While casual athletics were thriving in the ‘70s, the fitness craze that gripped the 1980’s combined fitness and popular culture like never before, making the tracksuit more mainstream.
By the ‘90s, the tracksuit itself was entrenched both as an on-field athletic staple, as well as a hip-hop icon. With major Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996, especially with ‘92’s Barcelona basketball “Dream Team,” tracksuits—now covered in vivid graphic designs—were far from dead. While earlier decades focused on a slimmer fit, these renditions were cut with a relaxed silhouette, making them perfect for pre and post-game attire, but also perfect for lounging around.
Hip-hop’s relation to the tracksuit also evolved in the ‘90s, and while much of the style’s attachment to the music scene would really peak in the following decade.
2000’s, the tracksuit gained new life as paparazzi shots captured a new wave of celebrities going about their daily lives in soft velour Juicy Couture.
Today’s tracksuit is a unique beast. With minimalism as a major design philosophy in the 2010s, most tracksuits carry monochromatic and simplified designs. If you see a tracksuit, likely it’s composed of the synthetic fabrics pioneered in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but styled as though it was a suit from the ‘60s or early ‘70s. With the rise of athleisure in modern-day menswear, cozy boys have co-opted the style for maximum comfort.
