Cheerleading Apparel Trends to Spot

As the cheerleading season dawns upon us, we as sports fans see the trends in the athletic industry for apparel and uniforms among all of the sports teams. Across all sports, teams are opting for brighter uniforms; teams are moving away from having uniforms of black, navy, gray, etc and opting for colors such as orange, red, yellow, royal or powder blue, etc. The NFL, NBA, and NCAA basketball are moving towards tighter fitting uniforms. NCAA football is moving towards having more stunning helmets with more intricate designs and such. However, these are not the only sports that are observing new trends, cheerleading is too. Cheerleading is seeing some trends emerge both last year and this year and hopefully you have seen some of them or will see them after hearing about them from this article. 

1. The first trend is the appearance of brighter lipstick. In the past, oh, I do not know, 100 years, lipstick has stayed in its usual range of colors- cherry, burgundy, beige, brown, etc. but now brighter colors are becoming much more popular for cheerleaders to wear; colors such as yellow, pink, orange, blue, and pink. We said pink twice? Well, they like pink. Red is still a popular option. Basically, the bright color for teams (out of their two or three team colors) has become the lipstick color of choice for cheer squads across the country, across all levels- high school, college, and pro.
2. The second trend is the multiple cheerleading uniforms for the special competitions and games. As a trend in college football has emerged of teams donning special uniforms for select rivalries or just specific opponents, the same concept has transferred to the cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are using special apparel designs for the same games as the players or sometimes even on their own. Gone are the days of only using one cheerleading uniform for a season.
3. 3.    The third trend is ditching the poufy warm-up uniforms. Since we are no longer in the 80s or 90s, well, even the 2000s, cheerleading apparel is deciding to move away from the poufy warm-ups and opting for more snug, form-fitting ones that show off the body like their cheerleading uniforms do. One way teams are doing is by using a track suit style warm up instead of the swishy-swooshy stuff that they used to use; you know what I mean, the stuff that makes that obnoxious noise when you walk. Yeah, that stuff is gone. Walk in silence!
4. 4.    The fourth trend is using songs that are more retro. The former trend, that reigned for who knows how many years, was to use the latest pop songs that were playing on top 40 stations; this resulted in hearing a lot of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and other pop singers in recent years. However, the new cool thing to do is to use older songs that still have a lot of appeal. Some people go with the theme of using songs from the birth years of the cheerleaders, which is cool, but another idea is to just use good sounding songs that have been off the radar for a while.
5. 5.    The fifth trend is bringing back the pom-poms; this one is more for high school and youth cheerleaders. Many cheerleading squads decided to bring these back after ditching them a while back. In college, the cheerleaders still often use them so it is not really new for them; however, high school cheerleaders decided for the dance teams to use the poms but cheerleaders are wanting them back.