Can this activewear really fix your posture? Taylor Swift thinks so
Flying cars, talking robots, invisibility cloaks… when we predicted the future from our '90s bedrooms, we weren’t far off. While our cars are still curtailed by gravity, drivers are surplus to requirements, and our robots don’t just talk, they predict the future for us (‘Alexa, what’s the weather forecast for Saturday?’).
As for clothes that make you invisible, that tech has yet to show up. But the latest activewear does know what your body is up to before you do. Proprioceptive activewear is here to change your workout as you know it.
Named after your body’s ability to sense its place in space without having to look at it – aka proprioception – it’s the latest buzzword on the lips of activewear founders and the athletes they dress, who claim that proprioceptive kit will revolutionise the way you train. A punchy promise? Perhaps. But between compression tech designed to reduce recovery times and fabrics that realign your body, the latest activewear has been designed with your PB in mind.
‘The activewear and athleisure space is heading towards a future shaped by innovation that will evolve to meet growing consumer demand for tech-enhanced apparel,’ says Tiffany Hill, founder of the fashion forecasting studio Trend Suite.
The trend is being driven in part, she notes, by the desire for the kind of performance-enhancing products – an umbrella term for everything from carbon-plated running super shoes to buoyancy-boosting swimsuits – that were once the preserve of professional athletes. There’s demand for data, too.
‘Not only are athletes and fitness enthusiasts seeking clothing that enhances performance and reduces injury, they want activewear that integrates features such as compression, motion sensors and biomechanic feedback.’
What is proprioception?
Okay, let’s back up a bit for a minute – a skill for which you can thank proprioception. It’s how you walk without looking at the ground and touch your nose with your eyes closed (you’re trying it, aren’t you?).
‘Some people make an analogy to a GPS system,’ says Susi Hately, yoga therapist and founder of Functional Synergy – a company that provides training to movement and body-based professionals, such as yoga teachers and physiotherapists.
'Your brain uses proprioceptive signals to synchronise location, speed, angles and orientation to know how to respond to your body moving within an environment.’
IRL, this looks like a network of sensors throughout your muscles and joints, integrating signals from your musculoskeletal, vestibular, central, and peripheral nervous systems to create a kind of map of your body that’s communicated to your brain without you consciously thinking about it.
That proprioceptors – as the sensors are known – can affect everything from posture and hand-eye coordination to spatial awareness and joint stability might have something to do with the fact that they’re of interest to those in the business of incremental gains.
‘Good proprioception is correlated with better joint stability and neuromuscular muscle coordination,’ adds Hately. ‘As a result, having this internal sense of awareness can reduce your risk of developing sprains and strains, improve your balance and enhance your agility and nimbleness. And given the importance of proprioception for all of these areas, it’s a growing field of awareness and interest.’
What is proprioceptive activewear?
Growing, because while the trend is pipped to be one of the most game-changing in the activewear market in 2025, it’s actually been around for a while.
The Australian compression brand Skins has been an innovator in the field since you were daydreaming about flying cars, experimenting with how compression and proprioception can better the performance of athletes – with impressive results.
A 2010 study in the Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research found that Skins’ whole-body compression garments (WBCGs) likely improved distance and muscle oxygenation during prolonged high-intensity exercise, suggesting performance benefits. Another study from the same year found that Skins compression tights provided recovery benefits similar to massage for female athletes after exercise-induced muscle damage, with compression and massage in combination offering greater reductions in soreness.
Then there’s 2XU, a sportswear brand that’s working with innovative muscle technology. Its MCS (Muscle Containment Stamping) system uses a silicone web wrapping technique to provide targeted compression to specific areas, such as the glutes and hamstrings, to reduce muscle oscillation – small vibrations during exercise – while stabilising muscles and absorbing impact.
Muscle oscillation can stimulate sensory receptors to provide proprioceptive feedback that helps the body adjust, but excessive oscillation can cause microtraumas in the muscles, leading to fatigue and impacting performance. Meanwhile, stabilising the muscles and absorbing some of the force can conserve energy, aid post-workout recovery and limit muscle damage.
The trend has even been rubber-stamped by Taylor Swift, who made headlines when she was spotted wearing a posture-correcting sports bra by the human-performance company Forme during rehearsals for her Eras tour.
Designed by orthopaedic surgeon Stephen Liu, the bra uses six varied-tension fabrics and eight double-fabric panels to support key muscle groups, such as the traps and rhomboids, to enhance posture by building ‘muscle memory’. Essentially, steering your body away from the posture you have thanks to decades of desk-working and eye-watering screentime stats, and towards the posture you need.
Over+Above's innovations in the space
Fast-forward to 2024 and brands are so confident in this technology that they’re building business models around it. The UK-based Over+Above was born when Jamas Hodivala, a barrister and hockey player, grew frustrated with a recurring shoulder injury that left him relying on constant physio visits and repeated applications of kinesiology tape – a stretchy adhesive that provides gentle pressure to help alleviate discomfort and support healing.
Determined to create a garment that would offer the same support as the tape, but in a more convenient, long-lasting form, he partnered with biomechanist and technologist Chris Peploe. In August 2024, the brand launched its inaugural collection of tops, leggings and sleeves that use its patented Proprio technology. The design hinges on three main features. Perhaps the best-known method for activating proprioception is compression.
‘[Compression] stops the muscles moving so much during your activity, which is going to reduce fatigue and start to “streamline” that message from muscle to brain,’ Dr. Peploe tells WH.
Next, kinesiology structures are designed to sit over key muscle groups and joints – the added stability helping muscles to ‘resist unnatural motion,’ including overstretching or hyperextensions, limiting motion without restricting it.
Lastly, the garments are equipped with sensory nodes, in the form of silicone grippers that subtly interact with your skin to signal your brain to focus on those specific areas, sending this data back to your nervous system and leading to more controlled movement. That’s the theory at least.
To strength-test those claims, the brand worked with elite athletes across a range of disciplines, including a number of Team GB athletes, to train in the pieces before providing brutally honest feedback. With some, such as England Rugby captain Jamie George and presenter and marathon runner Adele Roberts, going on to wear the kit while representing on the world stage.
But athletes aren’t the only ones set to benefit.
‘We want amateurs to be able to push their bodies to a place that they didn’t think was possible,’ says CEO and former England cricketer Matt Prior, on the brand’s North Star.
‘When you’re elite, you’re in tune with your body. But when you’ve just taken something up, your joints hurt, your muscles hurt. If the elites are going to get a 1%, 2%, 3%, 5% gain from this, I think amateurs are going to get a 20% to 30% gain because it’s also going to affect your recovery immeasurably.’
What is the future of activewear?
So what’s next in the world of performance-enhancing activewear?
‘Design is poised to revolutionise both professional athletics and everyday fitness regimes,’ says Hill. Hyrox athletes are embracing proprioceptive activewear, while former GB sprinter Mark Findlay sports Over+Above’s calf sleeves and tights when he competes, claiming four months of training in the pieces has seen off previous calf pain.
That it’s already having an impact on injuries has led some in the space to ponder if shaving seconds off records is next.
And whether like the banned Speedo LZR Racer – worn by 98% of swim medallists at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 due to its significant impact on speed and buoyancy – proprioceptive activewear will be the next to be considered by sporting legislators. Dr Peploe isn’t worried: ‘As a scientist and innovator, that’s kind of the ultimate accolade for me.’
More cutting-edge fitness tech to read about:
Oura Ring review: 'I've worn my Oura Ring 3 every day for nearly 2 years, here's why it's so good'
On debuts their game-changing Cloudboom Strike LS spray-on running trainer
'WHOOP has finally added the one metric I was begging for: Steps'
Cut through the noise and get practical, expert advice, home workouts, easy nutrition and more direct to your inbox. Sign up to the WOMEN'S HEALTH NEWSLETTER
You Might Also Like
