Gucci jogging pants cost $2,100, Louis Vuitton dumbbells go for $2,860, and technical Prada sneakers will set you back $950.

With the global activewear market projected to reach almost $440 billion by 2026, fashion houses are experimenting with athletic clothing and accessories more than ever.

The crossover isn’t entirely new. Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and Fred Perry all have athletic roots. Jil Sander collaborated with Puma in 1998. Chanel released a collection in 2010 with everything from golf clubs to surfboards.

But in a world where $2000 Dior Jordans sell out in minutes, the landscape has evolved even further.

“There’s a real market for luxury brands to develop performance-driven higher-priced items,” Julie Gilhart, president of Tomorrow Consulting, told WWD. “What’s on the forefront is those luxury brands applying their luxury with the technology of a Nike or a Lululemon.”

Some have argued that top traditional sportswear brands should already be recognized as leaders in high-end categories.

“If you think about the tenets of luxury — like high-quality craftsmanship, timelessness — many performance brands fit into that,” Sarah Willersdorf, global head of luxury at Boston Consulting Group, said in an interview with Vogue. “For younger consumers, in particular, Nike is as much a luxury brand as many of the true luxury brands.”

Nike revenue fell 4% to $37.4 billion during its fiscal 2020, but digital sales increased 47%. The company says it added over 70 million customers to Nike membership programs since the beginning of the pandemic.

In December, Lululemon reported third-quarter sales of $1.1 billion, up 22% year-over-year.

“It’s not a fashion play,” CEO Calvin McDonald said about the company’s sartorial status. “Some of the fashion brands look at it as an opportunity, but I think rooted in our business is technical performance.”

While many major sports leagues are playing full schedules with limited fans, the world’s third-most decorated gymnast is waiting on the sidelines with the Tokyo Olympics looming.

Simone Biles has used the extra time to work on a rarely-attempted move: the Yurchenko double pike, a vault no female gymnast has ever performed in competition.

Olympic warmup events are among the competitions that remain shut down a year into the pandemic. With less capital to implement solutions and sustain losses, a number of leagues are simply waiting it out.

• Minor League Baseball canceled its season for the first time in 120 years in 2020, with implications spilling over into this year’s campaign.
• The XFL — acquired over the summer by RedBird Capital Partners, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Dany Garcia — canceled its 2021 season.
• National Lacrosse League called off its 2021 season, too.

The common denominator: revenue for smaller leagues is highly dependent on in-person fans. Major professional sports can fall back on TV and sponsorship deals, as well as their capital reserves.

When you factor in the cost of safely administering events, the financial justification is that much more difficult.

The Ivy League, less concerned about revenue, still canceled its sports seasons this year over safety and logistics concerns. Brooklyn Nets owner and Yale alumnus Joseph Tsai attempted to fund a three-week lacrosse tournament bubble but his offer was rebuffed.

A new federal bill concerning the rights of college athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness was introduced Wednesday, this time by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The Amateur Athletes Protection and Compensation Act pulls elements from previous bills originated on both sides of the aisle.

“It is no secret that college athletics have grown into an increasingly profitable, billion dollar industry,” Moran said in a statement. “However, the rules surrounding athlete compensation have not been modernized.”

The bill would allow athletes to obtain representation and sign endorsement deals. It would also create a body to oversee and adjudicate NIL in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission.

Additional provisions:

• Athletes could enter professional league drafts and then return to school if things don’t work out.
• Schools would have extra obligations to cover athlete medical expenses and must pay scholarships until athletes gets their degrees.
• Athletes could transfer schools once without having to sit out a year.

Like other Republican-backed bills, Moran’s states that athletes cannot be considered employees.

Congress has until July 1 — when a Florida law permitting college athletes to be paid for their NIL takes effect — to pass legislation before recruiting chaos ensues. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who also introduced a college athlete reform bill, said Congress may not pass a law until that deadline.

You don’t need a fancy rink to go ice skating, or a Quebec chalet reservation to enjoy the confines of a gondola with your friends.

Ranging from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, at-home ice rink building kits have seen a remarkable increase in interest.

“COVID sort of triggered everyone to purchase a backyard rink,” Blair Robertson, co-owner of Ice N’Go, told the Wall Street Journal. The Montreal-based company tripled its sales this winter.

NiceRink, a Wisconsin-based company, more than doubled its sales. And Newtown, Mass. company EZ ICE, which can assemble its rinks in under 60 minutes, saw such increased demand it was forced to open additional warehouses and manufacturing sites.

If you’d rather stay seated, some eateries are now incorporating ski gondolas to maintain social distancing guidelines. 

Dominique Bastien, who owns the Gondola Shop in Fruita, Colo., told Fast Company she bought 200 retired resort gondolas several years before the pandemic.

After being contacted by roughly 50 restaurants across the country inquiring about her gondolas, she pounced on the opportunity to pivot from selling to private backyards to providing public dining enclosures.

The gondolas run between $14,000 and $20,000, depending on restoration. While they won’t lift you to a restaurant at the top of a mountain, you can still eat and drink inside one at sea level.