Shop for cosy, comfy fitness gear at these three Singapore brands

Entering your soft era?

- Amanda Chai Style Correspondent

The athleisure of today may not be what you are familiar with from the pandemic boom of ultra-compressive workout wear. Whether you identify as a "pilates princess" or a pickleball nerd, here are three local brands redefining functional comfort in and out of the gym.

CHEAK

A boutique in Ion Orchard is quite the dream way to celebrate a five-year anniversary. Co-founders of activewear brand Cheak (cheak.com), Ms Tiffany Chng and Ms Olivia Yiong, never expected their pandemic baby to hit this milestone so soon.

Marking the first local activewear brand to join the luxury mall, the 893 sq ft unit at B3-57 is also Cheak’s first standalone retail store, where you can touch and try the brand’s signature proprietary fabrics, BaseFlex and CoolLuxe, engineered for activity and lounging respectively.

Look out for a new design highlight called the Define Invisible Scrunch: a blink-and-miss-it scrunch in a bra, or at the back of bottoms to gently sculpt the booty and subtly highlight the woman’s body — “to add a feminine touch without being too sexy”, says Ms Yiong.

To celebrate the store which opened on Oct 24, Cheak has launched The Big Flex, a birthday collection of bestselling designs in a refreshed palette: cereal (butter yellow), gun metal (grey), sesame (black), truffle (chocolate brown) and flow (baby pink).

Think Strappy Bras ($55) and matching Define Shorts ($65); and for leisure pieces, the Cozy Hoodie ($75) and City Wide Leg Pants ($79) in its ultra-soft CoolLuxe fabric that could give American lifestyle brand Juicy Couture’s 1990s velour tracksuits a run for their money.