Sportswear to make you look how you feel!

Sportswear is definitely having its moment, and it makes me happy. Not because i'm sporty, I most definitely am not, but I am all for supporting a brand who wants to make you feel great and look great at the same time. Now I have just started going to the gym and I know I want to wear something to get me in the spirit, which is why i'm going to grab me some MYSPORTLONDON pieces! Anyway, I caught up with their founder Natalie Campbell who explains the brand's motto: ' Sportswear to make you look how you feel'

MYSPORTLONDON is about being wholly inclusive and what they stand for is turning, up, making the play, making the effort, looking like a God/Godess is great but also looking like you and getting on with your life/sport is of the utmost value....

I like trousers. Not just normal, cut for hips, nicely fitting trousers… … I like actual boy's trousers. Cut for men and so tight on my hips that I have to buy a massive size and curl them up around my ankles like some sort of demented Jamaican reggae bad girl. Yes, I said girl. I am female. An ‘allegedly’ made for pink and nice and a bit of sparkle and fitted, and curves and a bosom and long long swishy hair G-I-R-L.

For the longest time I wanted to be a girl like the one that I just described. From the school playground I wistfully dreamt of straight hair that you could brush easily - I am mixed race, Caribbean English so my hair is generally like a thicket bush most days. Fast forward to adulthood, and despite all my Disney-dreams I actually ended up being the sort of girl that lifts weights, has delts, runs frequently (and badly), and so often dresses like a boy that my mum once asked me if I was a lesbian. Whatever that means.

The thing now is, that I accept who I am, I have found a way to love my quirks. I celebrate my unwillingness to conform to a society-wrought ideal so much; that I started my own company making sportswear for people like me. I don’t like or want to be defined by what I wear when I am sweating. I don’t want to be defined by what I wear EVER. My sexuality, my wellbeing, my personality, my femininity has nothing to do with whether I am wearing a sparkly mini or a man’s shirt.

I am me, and when I work out, I feel like the best iteration of “ME” as I ever feel. Sport is a universal leveller of people. No matter how good you are, there will always be somewhere better at some point. No matter how bad you are, there will always be someone worse. No matter if you are missing a limb, your sight or have any other physical affectation, there will almost certainly be someone somewhere doing the same sport with the same affectation, sex, creed, worry and goal.

Endorphins however, are unilaterally effective they are achieved in varying levels by all people so the very notion of ‘effort’ to nurture oneself with activity, at whatever level, is beneficial. For just a short moment, leave the consideration of the size/wobble/irregularity of one offending part of your physicality and do something that will get your heart rate up.

Plunge yourself into a pool, do a yoga tutorial on YouTube at home or spend 30 minutes shadow boxing in the gym. Forget what people may or may not be looking at and just be you. I forced myself right out of my own comfort zone to create a range of sports clothing that is the exact same for men and women in appearance, for this very purpose.

In our pattern cutting we account for the physiological differences that technical leggings need to account for, but in terms of appearance our collection at MYSPORTLONDON is designed to let you be you. No difference male, female or neither. Whatever your sport and whomever you happen to be.

I can only recommend that you try it, level yourself and your life challenges by pounding the street in your favourite joggers and if you don’t have a pair that lets you just look and feel like you, then feel free to buy a pair of ours.

Our tagline is ‘sportswear to make you look how you feel’ and our hashtag is #knowyourself. I think that says it all.

MYSPORTLONDON will be exhibiting at The London Sport Show fashion pop up in London's Brick Lane in late April.