the lines between sportswear and activewear in the U.S. fashion are blurring

As the country gets more casual and gym rats get more fashionable, the lines between sportswear and activewear are blurring.

As sportswear companies enter the athletic arena and customers look to active companies to dress them outside the gym, athletic apparel companies are having to reexamine the balance of performance and fashion.

"It would be foolish to think that performance gear can't be fashion-forward and that fashionable pieces can't be functional," said a Nike spokeswoman.

Paiva, a high-end women's athletic store, began four months ago to fill what it perceived as a consumer need by offering stylish activewear options. According to Jeff Pofsky, Paiva's vice president and general merchandise manager, Nike, Adidas, Fila, Puma and Under Armour are all making lines that smartly combine function and fashion.

"These companies are becoming much more savvy in the ways they are putting the lines together," Pofsky said.

One way is enlisting big-name designers from the fashion world.

"There is no doubt we have pushed boundaries and created something that had not been out there," said Heike Leibl, head of product for Adidas by Stella McCartney (for more on this collection, see story, this page). "It's like a wave that starts somewhere and brings a lot of people into motion."

Adidas by Stella McCartney launched in 2005 and has brought cachet and attention to the athletic company, while also influencing the way it thinks about fusing fashion and performance in its other lines, including the new Fuse and Adilibria. Adidas has three divisions: sports performance that includes the McCartney line, sports heritage and sports style, which includes Y-3, the sportswear collaboration with designer Yohji Yamamoto.

"Fashion and performance are not separate anymore," Leibl said. "Our consumer does not have to compromise one for the other."

Meanwhile, Adidas executives have said they want Reebok, which Adidas bought in January for $3.8 billion, to focus more on performance, saying the brand has been too centered on fashion fads in the past. Reebok is also promoting its relationship with the National Football League for an ad campaign. At the same time, Reebok is collaborating with actress Scarlett Johansson to create the "Scarlett [Hearts] Rbk" lifestyle fashion line, which is "about how Scarlett attaches to the brand, which affects not just her line," Reebok chief executive officer Paul Harrington said in announcing the collection last month.

"When we emphasize performance, it's not at the expense of lifestyle," Harrington said. "We feel we can play in both fields."

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