Introduction to Athletic Gear

Athletes count their gear--from clothing to accessories--as an important part of their respective sports. Athletic gear enhances the athlete in a myriad of ways, from performance to looks. As such, professional athletes and sports aficionados alike invest in their gear. Also, ordinary, non-athlete people use athletic gear in their casual attire, making these clothing and equipment fashion pieces as well.

What exactly is "athletic gear"? There is no hard definition, but we can think of athletic gear as the equipment or tools used in athletic activities, such as competitive sports. There is a great variety of athletic gear in the world today, as there are dozens upon dozens of sports needing specialized gear.

In this resource website, we'll try to cover as much athletic gear topics as possible. We start off with athletic apparel (clothing), which includes several sub-articles as it covers a lot of ground. The various kinds of athletic shirts, pants, shorts, jerseys, jackets, uniform, and underwear fall under athletic apparel.

Accompanying athletic apparel is a variety of accessories, which can be either helpful towards an athlete's performance (e.g. armbands), vital to the game (e.g. helmets), or simply add flair and style (e.g. headbands).

No set of athletic gear is complete without footwear. Arguably, athletic shoes have made it to casual attire more than any other type of athletic gear. Footwear vary from sport to sport; for example, football (soccer) shoes have spikes so players don’t slide on the field, while many basketball shoes emphasize "lightness", allowing players to maximize their leaping abilities.

For the shoppers out there, we've got an article on buying athletic gear, which has tips, advice, and good athletic gear shopping sites. Many people who shop for athletic gear instinctively look for the good brands out there, and our article on them might help you decide on which brand to go for, with respect to your favorite sport.

A special article we have here is the one on the various types of athletic balls – basketballs, footballs, golf balls, tennis balls, you name it. Also, we have five articles on five popular sports and their respective athletic gear and equipment – basketball, baseball, American football, football / soccer, and tennis.