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Zara Athleticz: Functional Performance In Minimalist, Sustainable Style

By Matthew Denis Published September 30, 2021

Zara athletes take to the streets, sporting its new Athleticz line. — Zara athletes take to the streets, sporting its new Athleticz line. Image used with permission by copyright holder

If there is a brand that knows how to adapt to sports trends, it would be Zara. The largest company in the Inditex Group’s eight retail lines, Zara is in a permanent state of renewal, managing up to 20 clothing collections a year. And Inditex, the largest retailer in the world, already has a long history of collections in which sport is the main protagonist, most recently with its home gym fitness equipment.

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Zara’s freshest capsule collection, Athleticz, is based on three fundamental ideas: Simplicity, functionality, and comfort. As of Sept. 30, you can take part in the exclusive collection of recreational clothes designed to ensure maximum performance and style during each training session.

The Athleticz collection is designed to be adaptable with a focus on performance across disciplines. From long to short sleeve shirts and from base layers to backpacks, Athleticz gear features optimal finishes like flat seams, fixed thermal and laser-cut hems that help athletes to minimize abrasion and maximize aerodynamics.

Garments are manufactured with carefully selected fabrics. Zara’s goal has always been to create sleek athletic gear that helps wearers improve performance via stylish, breathable clothing. Athleticz gear even features a secret code instead of emblazoning its logo across fabric: 26-1-18-1; a numeric, Anglo-Saxon ordering of the word ‘Zara.’

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In Athleticz, Zara maintains its minimalist style. Shoppers who are eyeing flashy patterns need to look elsewhere because the new gear’s color palette emits simplicity and lightness with burgundy, yellow, blue, black, gray, and white tones. And each piece is manufactured with natural fabrics that align to Zara’s Join Life standard.

In 2001, Inditex signed a United Nations global compact in a commitment to social and environmental sustainability. At Zara, sustainability remains a continuous project with specific programs to develop a holistic approach to integrating this social and ecological bar, now incorporated in Athleticz cross-functional line.

Whether it’s basketball, running, or yoga, this is undoubtedly a collection that invites you to exercise.

Read More: How the Fashion Industry Stepped Up to Fight COVID-19

Former Digital Trends Contributor

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Shohei Ohtani’s newest Seiko is out of this world

Seiko built Shohei Ohtani a one-of-one watch that tracks a million hours across five rotating discs — and you can't buy it.

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The Seiko Star Time, presented to Shohei Ohtani on July 3, marks his tenth year as a Seiko ambassador. It's not for sale, will never be for sale, and there's exactly one on Earth — currently strapped to the best baseball player alive. Oh, and also? It looks absolutely nuts. Instead of hands, the Star Time tells time with five stacked, concentric discs, each tracking a different scale of accumulated time: 24 hours, then 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, and finally a disc that runs all the way to one million hours.

That's roughly 114 years — a full human lifetime, give or take. The discs turn continuously, so slowly you can't see them move. Seiko named it "Star Time" for exactly that reason: like stars drifting across the sky, the motion is imperceptible in the moment but relentless. A little existential for a watch company, but let's go with it.

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The Internet Killed Expertise and Then Made It Cool Again

How the Internet Killed Expertise, Made It Worthless, and Then Made It Cool Again

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We’ve gone through a little period that I like to call the “Dark Ages of Knowing Things,” when the internet had an entire generation of men convinced they no longer needed experts. Why would they? Everything was available at the drop of a hat, and with one Google search, you could have the world at your fingertips. There were deep-dive forum threads written by a retired Swiss watchmaker in Neuchâtel who had seen 40 years of studying the serif on a Rolex dial (probably, but I can’t actually verify that.) It was all there, free for the taking, and unfortunately, completely indistinguishable from a guy who just bought his first watch 6 weeks beforehand and was already writing a buying guide.

For a while at least, it felt like the walls were coming down, and in some ways, they were. The gatekeepers no longer had their gates, which meant that a kid from Doncaster could learn to identify a fake Submariner faster than a back-alley dealer who had been in the business for 20 years if he simply spent enough nights casually perusing Reddit threads. Knowledge, we were told, should be free. Of course, nobody mentioned that free knowledge and good knowledge are not the same thing.

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The Best Men’s Style Picks for FIFA World Cup 2026: What to Wear from Takeoff to Kickoff

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FIFA 2026 provides a global amphitheater for sport, people, and culture to converge. Not only do the world’s best football players compete for the crown, but devoted fans have opportunities for travel and spectacle, visiting new places while cheering on their national team. It’s a true celebration.

And when participating in a once-in-a-lifetime event, it makes sense to dress your best, not only to look good, but to express yourself and support your team. With that in mind, I put together my favorites for each step of the World Cup journey — travel day, match day, and nights on the town.