High-Waisted Performance Leggings

ACTIVEWEAR · skinny fit · Premium Recycled Polyester

High-Waisted Performance Leggings, modelModel
GradePer unit at 100
ColourTeal
QuantityUnder 300, a $110 development fee applies

Add 200 more to pay $23.48 / unit.

Size run ·
Customise

Gabi designs your changes in the Studio, then you order the finished piece. ORDER below makes it as shown.

Delivery
Lead time confirmed with your orderShipping is priced at checkout from your address.
Premium · Teal × 100$27.01 / unit
Development fee, under 300 units$110.00
ShippingAt checkout
Total, before shipping$2,811
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What's included at $27.01

  • High-Waisted Performance Leggings, Premium grade (Premium Recycled Polyester)
  • Made to order in Teal
  • Your size run, as set above
  • Replaced if anything arrives faulty

Shipping is priced at checkout from your address.

Make it yours

Your logo on the chest, a woven label, a back print, a colour from your brand book: Gabi designs the changes with you in the Studio and prices the finished piece before you order it. Your logo file goes on as you supply it.

High-Waisted Performance Leggings, close-upClose-upFabric and finish
Replaced if faultyMade to order, so no change-of-mind returns. Anything that arrives damaged or defective, we make right.
Try one firstOne unit in Premium, made like the run, through the same checkout.

A form-fitting legging that extends from a high waist to a straight ankle-length hem, cut close through the hip, thigh and calf. The wide double-layer waistband sits flat against the torso, while a V-shaped front yoke seam angles downward from the side toward the centre. A pull-on closure and seamless outer leg give the leg a continuous line.

Specs

GradePremium, Premium Recycled Polyester
Main Fabric75% Recycled Polyester / 25% Elastane, 220gsm
FitSkinny
SilhouetteForm-fitting high-waisted legging
LengthAnkle-length
HemStraight
ClosureHigh-stretch waistband
CareMachine wash at 30°C on a gentle cycle, Do not bleach, Do not tumble dry
Minimum order300 units

Size guide

cmXXSXSSMLXLXXL
Waist26283032343638
Hips32343638404244

The garment measured flat: compare it with one you own.

Encyclopedia

In 1959, DuPont introduced Lycra — a synthetic elastane fibre that could stretch to 600% of its length and snap back.

Nobody knew what to do with it. By 1968, it was in dancewear. By 1979, it was in running tights. By 1990, it was in every aerobics class in the world. By 2014, Lululemon had built a $10 billion brand on a single fabric construction. By 2020, leggings were the second most sold bottom in the world after denim jeans. One fibre. Sixty years. The most disruptive bottom in fashion history.

Read the story

Fabrics

Encyclopedia

The story of the High-Waisted Performance Leggings

In 1959, DuPont introduced Lycra — a synthetic elastane fibre that could stretch to 600% of its length and snap back. Nobody knew what to do with it. By 1968, it was in dancewear. By 1979, it was in running tights. By 1990, it was in every aerobics class in the world. By 2014, Lululemon had built a $10 billion brand on a single fabric construction. By 2020, leggings were the second most sold bottom in the world after denim jeans. One fibre. Sixty years. The most disruptive bottom in fashion history.

1959Material breakthroughDuPont introduced Lycra and created the technical basis for the modern legging
$10 billionBrand proofLululemon built a massive business on premium legging construction
Second-most soldCategory scaleBy 2020 leggings were the second most sold bottom after denim jeans

The Legging — "The Most Disruptive Bottom in Fashion History"

The history of the legging begins with a synthetic fibre. In 1959, DuPont introduced Lycra — its trade name for elastane, also known as spandex or elastane — to the commercial market. Elastane is a synthetic polymer that can stretch to six times its resting length and return exactly to its original dimensions. This property, known as elastic recovery, had never been achievable with natural fibres at the scale and consistency that synthetic production allowed. Cotton stretches modestly. Wool stretches slightly. Elastane stretches completely, repeatedly, and permanently.

The first major commercial application of Lycra-blended knit fabric was in professional dancewear and swimwear — contexts where close-fit performance was commercially established and where consumers already understood the value of stretch. The dance tights and skating costumes of the 1960s and 1970s were the proving ground. By the late 1970s, running tights in nylon/elastane had entered the performance market through specialist running brands, and the category began its migration from professional sport into the broader casualwear market.

The aerobics boom of the early 1980s was the cultural moment that moved the legging into mainstream fashion. Jane Fonda's workout videos — which sold tens of millions of copies — put the legging in front of an audience that measured in hundreds of millions globally. The association with health, energy, and active lifestyle gave the legging a set of aspirational cultural references that neither denim nor woven trousers could match. The high-cut aerobics legging of the 1980s, with its footstrap and contrast waistband, was the direct ancestor of every performance legging that followed.

The technological trajectory of the legging over the following four decades has been one of continuous fabric innovation. The transition from nylon/cotton blends to high-performance nylon/elastane and polyester/elastane fabrics in the 1990s and 2000s enabled moisture management, compression, and four-way stretch at fabric weights below 200 GSM. The introduction of GRS (Global Recycled Standard) recycled polyester and nylon into performance legging fabrics from the early 2010s added a sustainability dimension that has become commercially significant.

Lululemon's commercial ascent from 1998 onwards represents the defining case study in legging brand architecture. The company built a premium legging brand on three pillars: fabric technology (the proprietary Luon nylon/elastane blend), community positioning (yoga rather than aerobics, studio-to-street rather than gym-only), and vertical retail that allowed price integrity and margin control. By 2020, Lululemon's market capitalisation exceeded $40 billion — built almost entirely on a knit bottom priced at $88–148.

The athleisure category that Lululemon helped to create and that was accelerated dramatically by the 2020 pandemic lockdowns has fundamentally altered the commercial logic of the legging. The legging is no longer a performance specialist product — it is a daily wear item worn from morning exercise through work, errands, and evening in a way that no previous activewear garment had achieved. This shift has created an enormous commercial market at every price tier, from $10 fast fashion polyester leggings to $150 compression performance tights.

The jersey tights variant — a legging worn as hosiery substitute with a sheer or semi-opaque knit — occupies a different but related market. The opaque jersey tight, typically in 80–200 denier nylon/elastane or cotton/elastane, bridges the space between hosiery and legging. It is constructed on finer gauge circular knitting machines, is typically sheerer than a performance legging, and is worn as a fashion item under dresses and skirts as well as standalone.

For independent creators, leggings offer a high commercial opportunity with manageable construction complexity — provided the factory is correctly identified. The critical production note is that leggings are a knit garment: they require a knit factory with circular knitting machines and the capability to handle elastane-blend fabrics, exactly as T-shirts and hoodies do. A woven factory cannot make leggings. The seam type — flatlock versus overlocked — is the primary construction quality signal. The waistband architecture — fold-over, wide, or narrow — is the primary design identity tool. Both must be specified before the factory quote.

Questions

Leggings cost between $16 and $63 per unit landed. Affordable polyester/elastane with overlock seaming from China: ~$16. Premium GRS nylon/elastane with flatlock seaming and pocket waistband from Turkey: ~$42. Luxury Econyl seamless recycled nylon from Portugal: ~$63. The primary cost variables are fabric (polyester $5/m vs nylon $13/m) and seam type (flatlock adds $1.50–3.00/unit CMT).

100 × Premium · Teal

$2,811

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