A discussion on the boutique makers of men’s leggings
There are, in my opinion, two macro types of men’s leggings out there. They are organized not by use cases, material, or fashion but simply by the size and distribution of the maker. If you purchase leggings from the big guys you can generally find them in a retail store and they have a tighter range on pricing to quality ratio meaning you know generally what a $25 dollar pair of leggings will fit like as opposed to a $100 pair.
Purchasing leggings from the bigger brands like Nike, Under Armor, Gym Shark, H&M etc is also fairly limiting they generally only produce sport-specific garments. Men’s leggings are definitely very useful for fitness and this is where many guys will start when they begin wearing them but as you move into athleisure fashion and men’s leggings as a staple of your fashion these brands don’t necessarily come along for the ride.
Enter the boutique makers. These are men’s leggings specific brands. They are much much smaller than the big guys. They don’t really have a retail presence and they are all over the map on quality, price, and sizing.
Trying to find the best men’s leggings for your style, fashion and usage can already be a daunting task. Adding in the boutique makers and it gets even harder. The whole ecosystem of boutique makers has really expanded in the last few years and there are a bunch of options. I was joking with a subscriber on Instagram Messanger about how this leads to what I call “leggings roulette”.
When you can only interact with a maker through e-commerce you are in essence gambling on a lot of things.
Will the leggings fit?
What is the quality?
Is the fabric good?
How do the pockets land on my body?
Will they stay up?
There are a lot of questions and you don’t really know the answer until you pull the trigger and purchase them. I don’t see this issue changing any time soon. This leaves you two choices. Stick with the big brands and only spend money on stuff you can try on and know will work for your body type and style or roll the dice and try out boutique makers.
The Pros and Cons of rolling the dice on boutique makers of men’s leggings
I wanted to share my opinions on this emerging space and share why I think we all should be willing to spend money on the boutique makers but also help us be savvy shoppers and better educated on what brands we should be purchasing from. I’ll be doing dedicated reviews as a new part of this blog and my social media content (which is daunting in its own way- but I think it will be really fun for me and great for the community of dudes rocking leggings a lot) That’s not what I am discussing today tho. This is a higher view of the whole space.
Pros
The pros are first and foremost boutique makers are really driving the conversation and pushing the boundaries of men’s fashion. They are doing the work of carving out more space for all guys to wear leggings and wear them in whatever style they want. If we want to see more options, more materials, more sizes etc these brands are going to be the ones to do that.
These brands are also much smaller. We can speak to them in a meaningful way. They are looking for those conversations. If we share our feedback they can take that into their production lines a lot faster.
These brands are way niche - which is great! If you are looking for leather leggings - bam you can find a maker. If you want leggings for a festival or rave - there’s a maker out there. The boutique market is extremely diverse and growing more diverse. Whereas the big guys are consolidating the boutique folks are expanding.
Lastly, these brands are people. Boutique makers are putting their mortgages on the line they are living the movement. Nike is not emotionally invested. Boutique makers are very much so into the growth of the space and the bigger social changes that men’s leggings can help to bring about. Sure men’s leggings are fashion, but there is a lot of culture change happening with the adoption of men’s leggings into fashion and the big guys aren’t nearly as interested in this side of the movement.
Cons
This is where I feel for the boutique makers. They have the deck stacked against them. If you put on leggings from the big guys and then put on leggings from the boutique guys there can be a major difference in construction quality and caliber of the fabric. They just don’t have the resources to muster in buying good quality fabric and access to the labor and machinery on the production side. This means you often are paying a lot more for leggings but not necessarily receiving more value.
Another con is the only way to interact with these boutique makers is online so the experience can be rough. Some companies have great content good pictures and user feedback to help offset the lack of access. Others not so much. Buying online has gotten way easier than ever before BUT the ability to deliver a tactile experience and deliver high trust is very tough.
Another con is that a lot of boutique makers are stuck in a niche. It is easier to develop a brand when you play to groups and extremes so many of these boutique brands go for the wild colors and prints and exotic fabrics. The standard neutral black in natural fabric is almost non-existent in the boutique maker space. Building out a classic look with leggings from the boutique makers is harder to do. I wrote a whole article on this topic - The trouble with styling men’s leggings
Boutique makers still win
Lining it all up I am heavily in favor of the boutique makers. These brands are doing a lot of work with limited budgets in a very small niche. They are pioneers. They are the underdogs. They are heroes really.
Also, a majority of their cons go away as they sell more leggings and gain more market share. They’ll be able to increase their economies of scale and purchase better fabric, more skilled labor, and contract with better textile factories. This is all good news for folks like me who want to see more variety in men’s leggings and high-quality products for a fair price. The future looks good in my opinion - but for now, we all have to bet on black and spin the roulette wheel.
