Spanx Enters Activewear With Spanxsmooth OnForm

Plus: Nike x Patta collab expands

Author

Avinash Duggempudi
August 20, 2025

Styled Athletics

Here's what's happening this week in the world of styled athletics:
- Spanx enters activewear with Spanxsmooth OnForm.
- Asics’ running-led focus triggers fair value upgrade.
- Nike x Patta wave design expands to new silhouette.
- Gildan buys Hanesbrands; basics supply chain consolidates.

💸 The $200B Miscalculation Marketers Can’t Afford


On stage at eTail Boston, Fospha’s Chief Product Officer, Dom Devlin, warned that retail’s reliance on last-click metrics is outdated, and it’s costing brands $200 billion in under-credited sales.

The missed connection is clear: shoppers often discover on TikTok, Meta, or Snap, but complete their purchase on Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Traditional attribution frameworks rarely connect those dots. As a result, channels that spark demand are stripped of credit, while budgets overweight the “closers” - whether or not they truly created the sale.

Dom called this the bottom-of-funnel trap: over-investing in channels that finish the purchase while underfunding those that generate demand. The fallout is higher acquisition costs and shrinking pipelines of future customers.

Fospha’s Halo platform was built to break that cycle. By integrating marketplace and DTC sales into one unified ROAS, it captures the full impact of discovery spend across the funnel. For brands like Nécessaire and Give Me Cosmetics, that visibility has unlocked the confidence to double down on demand generation while protecting profitability.

📥Download Fospha’s Halo Report to see how leaders are funding growth where it really starts.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

Spanx launched Spanxsmooth OnForm, expanding from shapewear into activewear with a comfort-forward line. The move intensifies competition in women’s athleisure and opens incremental DTC and retail shelf space for the brand. Expect paid social and creator tests to chase incremental reach beyond the core shapewear customer.

Patta and Nike are extending their wavy Air Max collaboration to a new sneaker silhouette. The drop keeps limited-edition collabs at the center of sneaker demand creation, fueling scarcity loops and high-engagement launches. Streetwear partners, resale markets, and content teams will feel the ripple.

M&A
Gildan Agrees To Buy Underwear Maker Hanesbrands For $2.2 Billion
Gildan Activewear will acquire Hanesbrands for $2.2 billion, marrying Gildan’s vertically integrated manufacturing with Hanes’ mass-market brands. The deal signals further consolidation in basics and could reset cost structures, channel strategy, and retailer bargaining power. Expect portfolio pruning and supply chain reconfiguration across North America.

🧐 What Does Brand Building Really Mean in eCommerce?

I had an engaging conversation with Alex Brownsell for the latest episode of the WARC Podcast. We discussed where most brands get it wrong when it comes to brand building, with bad measurement and poor organizational structure amongst the biggest contributing factors - and how Fospha is aiming to solve the biggest questions around brand measurement with Glow. You can check out the full episode at this link: https://lnkd.in/df7c8EzH. Thanks Alex and team again for having me (and for offering a brief airconditioned respite from the intense heat and chaos of Cannes!)

⚡QUICK READS

Futuristic Performance Sneaker Launches: Mach X Caged: HOKA’s Mach X Caged blends race tech with runway styling, signaling continued demand for performance-fashion hybrids in footwear.(More)

Heritage Outdoor Fall Apparel: Gramicci FW25: Gramicci’s FW25 leans into heritage outdoor textures and silhouettes, reinforcing gorpcore’s staying power for fall merchandising.(More)

Asics’ Momentum Continues Across All Categories: Morningstar raised ASICS’ fair value as its running-first focus gains share—validating category concentration over broadline sportswear.(More)

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the DTC eCommerce division

 

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