It’s no secret that the world of athletic apparel has exploded over the past ten years. It’s gone from a small niche market aimed at athletes and high-intensity gym goers who wanted a piece of the well established Nike and UnderArmour names, to a category that has spurred an entirely new fashion term: athleisure. This athleisure trend has taken an industry that was once seemingly content to remain in the background, relegated to practice fields and only spoken about in locker rooms, and brought it to the forefront, making it acceptable, if not desirable, to be seen in garments that were once hidden away in gym bags.
“Casual and ‘athleisure’ have taken on a life of their own,” said Marshall Cohen, chief industry analyst of the NPD Group, Inc. “This is no longer a trend; it is now a lifestyle that is too comfortable, for consumers of all ages, to go away anytime soon.”
One company is taking a more focused and purposeful approach to apparel, and is breaking from the mold of basic polyester fabrics that have generic shapes and styles. Endeavor Athletic is the brainchild of Endeavor Sports Performance. Founders Jared Beach and Kevin Neeld, are aiming to raise the standard in the performance apparel industry with their innovative, body conforming, and highly functional performance gear.
The inspiration for the apparel extension of the Endeavor brand flowed naturally. On any given day just outside the offices at Endeavor Sports Performance, you can find the sights, sounds, and, unfortunately, smells of athletes hard at work. Endeavor athletes are focused, and are diligently following prescribed performance training programs specifically designed to help them excel at their given sport. This is not a “gym” environment. There is no one zoned out watching TV while mindlessly walking on a treadmill. This is an environment of timers beeping, sweat dripping, and coaches inspecting-looking for the smallest correction in form to facilitate function. It was the athletes in this facility, and the recognition that the generic athleisure trend in fitness apparel was no longer cutting it for real athletes, that spurred the creation of Endeavor Athletic.
“We try to do things differently, ” Jared Beach, co-founder & CEO, tells us. “We try to be as cutting edge as possible, both with our training programs as well as our apparel. There is a ‘craft apparel’ movement taking place, quite similar to the booming demand for craft beer brands, and by being comprehensive with our high-performing fabric selection and unique, functional design, we will be leading the charge.”
Feeling the responsibility to provide the highest level of service and resources to keep athletes at the top of their game, the Endeavor Athletic team researched the movements, sweat patterns, and training gear choices of their athletes to drive the innovation in their functional designs and apparel features.
“One of the big mantras here is to fit the program to the individual, not the individual to the program,” says Kevin Neeld, co-founder and Director of Performance. It’s this tailor-made philosophy that has made Endeavor successful, and from where Neeld feels that the performance apparel industry has turned away. “Our aim is to provide the athletic fit and high performance functionality that is lacking right now in the current mass-market athletic apparel industry. Just as people are finding better results with tailor-made programs at private training facilities than they were at big-box gyms, their apparel needs are changing in the same ways,” says Neeld.
This ‘focus on the athlete’ philosophy has given birth to an innovative apparel line that will provide athletes with products that have been thoughtfully designed to eliminate the distracting tugging, pulling, and adjusting of ill-fitting athletic garments; to create an environment where perspiration evaporates quicker and doesn’t lessen the integrity of the garment or impact on athletes movements; and to fight odor.
“We don’t think of our clothing as athletic apparel, we think of it as equipment,” says James Mohan, Head of Design and Brand. “A lot of athletes today are using clothing that just doesn’t fit, and doesn’t perform well.” 
Identifying and integrating true high performance fabrics is at the center of Endeavor’s design ethos. Endeavor is the first sports performance apparel company to widely utilize the Trizar Technology, which is Space Certified through NASA. Trizar fabrics improve moisture management, breathability, and comfort for athletes by increasing the ability of moisture to be transferred through the fabric, speeding up evaporation. Additional elements in the fabric reflect heat and sunlight to help regulate body temperature as well.
“Using Trizar Fabrics in sports performance gear is the biggest innovation in performance apparel since Gore-Tex was fist introduced,” says Beach. “Each piece of our training apparel was specifically engineered to perform better than any alternative currently available on the market. We felt it was time to raise the expectations for what high performance apparel truly means. Our focus is on delivering the best combination of innovative fabrics, functional fit, comfort, and style.”
Endeavor Athletic is currently running an Indiegogo Campaign with a goal to raise $30,000 by October 30th to further fund the launch of their new line, designed by and for the aspiring athlete. The company plans to have their full line of apparel available by December for purchase on their website www.EndeavorAthletic.com.