Fleece Joggers for Lounging or Working Out This Winter
With winter comes cold, dark, and often wet weather — conditions that challenge our human survival capabilities. So, it’s no surprise that we love anything that helps us stay warm, dry, and cozy through the season.
That’s where fleece comes in. This supremely popular fabric is famous for a reason. It’s not just an extremely comfortable fabric, but it’s also a high-performance option for those of us who want to work out year-round or go on adventures in the great outdoors.
Today, our Tasc Performance guide highlights fleece fabric and some top-quality jogger styles that put it to use. We’re going to help you understand why this fabric is so wonderful and why you should add it to your winter wardrobe, whether for workouts, leisure, or anything in between.
What Is Fleece?
Fleece: the wool coat of a sheep. Until the 1970s, that’s all the term meant. When a company called Malden Mills invented the first fleece fabric, the word took on a whole new meaning.
Today, fleece is one of the most popular kinds of fabric in the world, used in everything from athleisure attire to outdoor adventuring gear to blankets.
Despite its namesake, fleece is often not made with wool at all! Originally (and most often today), polyester is the main material used to make fleece. However, a variety of materials can be incorporated into the fabric.
The process for making fleece can vary, too, resulting in slightly different fabrics depending on whether the threads are knit or woven and whether one or both sides of the fabric are brushed. It’s the brushing of the short fabric piles that creates the super soft, fluffy surface most of us associate with fleece.
The essential qualities of fleece are warmth, softness, and breathability. The best types of fleece can also wick moisture, giving them a performance edge for athletic use.
Are There Different Types of Fleece?
There are many types of fleece depending on what the fabric is made from and how it’s made. The term covers a wide variety of fabrics, but all of them have fleece’s core soft, fluffy, and cozy features in common.
Depending on how the fleece is made, whether it is woven or knit, and whether one side is brushed or both, some fleece may be warmer than others.
When Should You Wear Fleece?
Fleece is a favorite fabric in the winter, with good reason. There’s nothing quite like cozying up in a fleece blanket, and the best fleece clothing can give you a similar feeling.
However, with the right fabrication and design, fleece clothing can be perfectly fitting year-round! The key is to look for fleece material that has balanced breathability, so you don’t overheat, and the ability to wick moisture efficiently. This way, you stay dry in case of sweat, rain, or similar circumstances.
Many people tend to think of fleece as something for casual wear or leisure. Still, with the aforementioned qualities, it’s also a wonderful material for athletic wear. (It’s especially ideal for outdoor adventures, such as hiking and climbing.)
Is Fleece Sustainable?
You may often see claims that fleece is not sustainable, but the answer entirely depends on the materials used.
Since fleece is a fabrication that can be made from almost any material, there is equal opportunity for sustainable or unsustainable production. Unfortunately, most fleece that you would find today is made from polyester.
Polyester is plastic. A synthetic material made from fossil fuels that will basically never break down naturally isn’t eco-friendly at any stage of its life cycle.
However, since so much polyester is already in the world, there is an opportunity to make fleece from recycled polyester. In this way, fleece can actually help alleviate some of the environmental challenges jeopardizing our future.
Fleece can also be made using natural fibers such as wool, cotton, hemp, and our personal favorite: bamboo. These materials, being natural, are much more eco-friendly than synthetic ones — although some, like traditional cotton, present issues when it comes to water usage, farmland deterioration, and pollution.
Why Fleece Joggers?
Joggers are a staple when it comes to athleisure attire, but there are lots of kinds to choose from. You’re going to want fleece joggers in your locker thanks to their incredible versatility, comfort, and performance capabilities, especially when a material like bamboo is used.
For the ultimate joggers, try our Varsity Brushed Lightweight Jogger or our Legendary Heavyweight Fleece Jogger. Built for everything ranging from the bedroom to the basketball court, these athleisure styles have all the qualities you need.
Ultra-Soft Material
If there’s one thing you want in any piece of athleisure attire, it’s a soft texture. You just can’t be comfortable with a scratchy, stiff, or otherwise not-soft surface on your skin, and comfort is the priority for all athleisure clothing.
Fleece is incredibly soft, thanks to the methods used to create it. The brushed piles of fabric feel amazing when they touch your skin, especially when a naturally soft material like cotton or bamboo is used.
Polyester-based fleece may not be as soft due to the harsher texture of that material.
Moisture-Wicking and Breathable
One of the most important jobs of our clothes is to help us thermoregulate, which is how we maintain a balanced body temperature.
Fleece is great for keeping our skin warm and insulating warm air in the air pockets between the fibers of the fabric, but a certain level of breathability is important so that we don’t overheat, as well.
Breathability is really essential for exercise since our body heats up beyond its normal resting point. If that excess heat is trapped in our clothes, our temperature continues to rise, which leads to discomfort or even danger to our health.
In tandem with breathability, moisture-wicking helps us keep from overheating or getting too cold. Moisture-wicking is a fabric’s ability to absorb moisture (namely sweat) from the skin and then release it from its surface as vapor.
By keeping you and your clothes dry, moisture-wicking materials help prevent further overheating. It even helps with rapid chilling in winter, since the moisture quickly becomes cold due to the air temperature.
Anti-Odor
With sweat comes odor. In most cases, we can wash our clothes to get rid of these odors. However, many materials actually trap lingering traces of these smells over time, which build up and eventually leave you with clothes that smell bad even after being washed.
Polyester and traditional cotton are both particularly guilty of this, but naturally odor-resistant materials such as bamboo can counteract the problem and keep your clothes fresh for years to come.
Easy To Maintain
Fleece is generally a low-maintenance fabric, which is ideal for those living an active, on-the-go lifestyle. Of course, you should always check the care instructions for individual styles. Depending on the materials used and the way the fleece was made, you may need to avoid things like very high heat wash cycles.
Fleece also generally shouldn’t be ironed, but that’s a trait you won’t have to worry about with a material like bamboo, which has natural wrinkle-resistant properties.
Perfect for Activity and Hanging Out
Whether you’re turning up the heat with some intense exercise or just lounging around the house, fleece is performance capable and cozy enough for both. As a highly versatile material, few options can compare to this fabric.
That’s why fleece is so perfect for athleisure styles like a pair of joggers. Made for both athletic activity and leisure, fleece joggers are super comfortable, durable, and able to handle whatever you throw their way.
Easy To Style
Thanks to the popularity and versatility of athleisure styles, it's incredibly easy to style a wide variety of outfits with just one or two pairs of fleece joggers.
Throw on a hoodie or pullover sweatshirt for an easy athleisure look, or slip over a quarter-zip jacket and baseball cap for something a bit sleeker. Pair your fleece joggers with your favorite t-shirt for a casual day out, or let a tank top do the talking when you hit the gym.
Meet Your New Favorite Joggers
Whether you try a pair of our Varsity Brushed Lightweight Jogger or our Legendary Heavyweight Fleece Jogger, we’re confident you’ll find your new favorite go-to pants for just about any occasion.
For all things activewear and innovative, sustainable fashion, stay tuned to our Tasc Life blog!
Sources:
The Evolution of Fleece, From Scratchy to Snuggie | The New York Times