British fashion retailer Marks & Spencer launches The Sports Edit

The launch welcomes over 200 sportswear and apparel products across women’s activewear and apparel from third-party brands including Beyond Yoga, FP Movement, Girlfriend Collective, and YMO (You, Me, Ours) as well as footwear brands Veja and Hoka—with more leading brands to follow throughout 2023, M&S said in a press release.

The brand partners have been selected by The Sports Edit and M&S to sit alongside the retailers’ market leading activewear brand, Goodmove. The dedicated sports platform features expert sports content curation where one can shop by brand, activity, or product type, with all of the advantages of shopping with M&S—such as free Click & Collect to over 700 stores—to offer customers a seamless shopping experience.

Katie Bickerstaffe, co-chief executive at M&S, said: “This year, we’re backing our growth categories with confidence and going into battle on sportswear. Building on the strong foundation of Goodmove, we’re combining our brand loyalty with the expertise of The Sports Edit to offer our customers an online sports retail platform which is a one-stop-shop for health and wellness.”

As well as housing third-party sportswear and apparel brands, the sports retail platform will have a distinct look and feel. Easy to navigate by brand, product type, or sports activity, M&S’s website will now feature product inspiration including ‘winter ready workout tops’ and ‘running trainer picks’ plus wellness content.

Launched in 2020, Goodmove has grown to become M&S’s biggest in-house brand—selling 1.6 million products annually. The latest collection for Spring 23, which launched in December, features womenswear, menswear and, for the first time, kidswear and has already proved popular.

The popularity of sportswear amongst M&S customers, particularly those shopping womenswear who seek high quality versatile products, identified a clear opportunity for M&S to expand its offering as it continues to build on style, quality, and value perceptions.

The global sportswear market is estimated to be worth £8.6 billion, with 56 per cent of the market dominated by brands. The launch continues to build on the retailer’s market-leading position in full price women’s activewear sales, with third-party brand partners complementing the core range and filling gaps in product areas.

“At The Sports Edit, we have a proven capability in brand curation and emerging brand identification—we’re experts in curating product and content, relevant to our customers lifestyles. We have worked closely with the team at M&S, to understand their customer lifestyles in order to hand-pick the very best of The Sports Edit for M&S. The launch builds on M&S’s foundation in sportswear to take it to the next level, filling gaps in areas that require specialist product, such as trainers to offer a platform equipped for the future,” said Nick Paulson-Ellis, CEO and founder at The Sports Edit.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (NB)