Tennis, Anyone?
Have you ever thought about the expression "sportswear?" These days, it's a kind of stuffy-sounding department-store-sounding word, used to describe "normal" clothes. It refers to the kinds of clothes that people wear on a daily basis, when they're not at the office or at a formal event. But why SPORTS wear? Today, sportswear is different than activewear, which is kind of weird when you actually think about it. (To say nothing of athleisure clothing.) The history of sportswear is (to nerds like me) utterly fascinating. There were so many factors that came together in the late 19th century and very early 20th century to create garments we still wear today. In 1839, a process was discovered to create a durable rubber product that could be used for everything from tires to the soles of shoes. This lead to the explosion in popularity of the bicycle, which necessitated changes in women's clothing. Bicycles gave women more freedom of movement th