Coaches Find a Way for Their Gymnasts to Compete in Style Despite Budget Differences and Rising Prices

New leotards are an exciting part of competition season. Unlike athletes in other sports, gymnasts don’t wear the same uniform every time they compete. While most leotards aren’t one and done, most teams don’t wear the same design more than once or twice in a season. Getting a new leotard is something that’s exciting for gymnasts and fans alike. Gymnastics fans get to analyze new leotards and identify the trends that come and go over the years. 

And those trends are constantly changing, just like choreography, hairstyles or even skills performed in routines. In the 2000s we saw a lot of leotards with a more athletic style. They then started to transition into designs with asymmetric elements. Now we have leotards with a lot of sparkles, different types of fabric and color effects like ombre or tie dye. 

And while every team gets to debut new leotards, it’s clear to seasoned gymnastics fans that some teams have more resources to do so in a given season than others—and there are a lot of reasons for that. Differences in budgets and design choices make for different strategies when it comes to planning out and executing a new leotard. So, how do different teams strategically create a nice leotard that’s also realistic financially? 

Designing a leotard is…