What happens when you run three athleisure brands through the Culture Barometer?
Athleisure is a crowded category, and one where brands increasingly look and sound the same. So I ran three brands from very different corners of it, On Running, Alo and P.E Nation, through the Culture Barometer to see where each genuinely sits with its audience.
Three very different brands, with one thread running through them all.
Each gets an overall reading and a closer look at category, audience and content.
For the bigger picture on where the category is heading, read my piece in Mumbrella.
On Running
Culture Barometer reading: Closing In
On was the brand I expected to top the scale. Its long-running partnership with Zendaya hit a new high with Shape of Dreams, a Spike Jonze film launching the pair's first co-created collection. And its premium, performance-meets-lifestyle position is about as clear as it gets in the category.
It landed just short. Category reads Dialled In, but Audience and Content both sit at Closing In, and for the same reason.
On speaks fluently to the runners who already love it: aspiration, design, performance. It shows up least for the grassroots, peer-led running community drawing in a new generation of everyday runners. That's the largest opportunity, as this is an audience which rewards brands offering belonging and participation, not aspiration alone.
Alo
Culture Barometer reading: Closing In
Alo was famous in Australia long before it opened a store here. Its first local doors opened in Sydney in May 2026.
It reminded me of Beats, a logo made culturally legible through seeding, worn by musicians and athletes before most people owned a pair. The question was whether that recognition had become genuine connection.
And for the most part, yes. Its "wellness is luxury" positioning sets it apart in a crowded category, and its Gen Z affinity is something most brands would envy. Content is where it slips to Emerging, which surprised me. It's beautifully made but leads almost entirely with the brand, celebrity and influencers. The audience is invited to admire Alo, not see themselves in it.
Early moves like run clubs and local studio residencies point the right way. The content just hasn't caught up. Closing that gap is what turns familiarity into authority.
P.E Nation
Culture Barometer reading: Emerging
There was a time you couldn't scroll without seeing P.E Nation, worn off-duty by Bella Hadid and the Kardashians, which is pretty impressive for a Sydney-born activewear label. Today the brand is much harder to pick from the crowd.
That's not because P.E Nation fell behind the culture. It read the shift towards elevated, understated activewear correctly and moved with it, so completely that its bold, unmistakable identity got lost. Strip the logo and there's little to separate it from the rest of the category. That leaves it competing on scale it doesn't have and community it's still building.
Co-founder, Claire Greaves' return is the chance to bring those signature assets back, and turn a brand that fits the trend into one that leads it.
What would your brand’s reading be?
The Culture Barometer maps where your brand sits across category, audience and content, and shows you which gap to close first.
Related work: how one cultural insight about belonging unified four very different shopping precincts.