Comfort didn’t quietly edge its way into fashion. It arrived, stayed, and changed the rules…
What young people in India choose to wear today is no longer shaped by where they’re headed, or even what’s perceived as ‘occasion – appropriate’ or ‘socially acceptable’. They are now motivated by one thing – how they feel when they are moving through the day. Clothes and footwear have shifted from markers of intent to tools of momentum. Athleisure and sliders didn’t rise because they’re relaxed. They rose because they make sense, and now they make ‘fashion sense’, because we made it so!
Spend a day observing Gen Z and millennials and the pattern is unmistakable. Mornings spill into afternoons. Work blends into social plans. Errands stretch into conversations. The idea of changing outfits for each version of the day feels outdated, even inefficient. After all, we’re not living in a bollywood song! What’s replaced it is a wardrobe built around ease, with pieces that don’t interrupt the day or ask for justification, they simply work for any occasion.
This isn’t fashion chasing novelty. It’s fashion responding to life.
2020 was a year where everything changed, never to go backwards, and the way I see it, marked a pivotal tilt in how the fashion industry evolved as well. Boundaries blurred. What was once reserved for private spaces began showing up in public without apology. Comfort crossed over and stayed, and once that happened, there was no reason to go back. The question stopped being Is this acceptable? and became ‘Why wouldn’t it be’?
The numbers echo what the streets already reveal. India’s athleisure market, valued at over USD 13 billion in 2024, continues to grow at a steady pace, driven largely by millennials and Gen Z. Globally, the category is projected to cross USD 600 billion by the end of the decade. More tellingly, much of this growth has little to do with sport. People aren’t dressing this way because they’re exercising more. They’re dressing this way because it works better for everyday life.
Footwear has followed the same arc. Sliders, once relegated to homes, holidays, and beaches, now move confidently through campuses, cafés, airports, and city streets. Their appeal is simple: minimal friction, easy to wear, easy to style, and easy to live in. In a country where walking, weather, and long days are constants, that kind of ease matters. What’s changed isn’t function, but perception. Today’s sliders are intentional. They come with clean silhouettes, thoughtful materials, colours and designs that feel deliberate in that they reflect who they’re meant for, making them a “choice” rather than an afterthought.
For younger consumers, comfort is no longer the absence of style. It is style. Gone are the days where dressing comfortably is automatically correlated with lowering standards and minimal effort. This generation has cracked the code on how to feel comfortable and look great, on their own terms. They dress to feel aligned with themselves. There’s confidence in that, quiet, assured, unforced.
This shift also reflects a deeper change in values. Gen Z and millennials are less interested in performing productivity through appearance. They’re more interested in reclaiming time, energy, and autonomy. Clothing and footwear that demand adjustment – pinching, constraining, slowing you down – feel out of step with that mindset. What resonates instead are pieces that allow movement, pause, and flexibility without friction.
Footwear brands are taking note, and designing for this new paradigm, bringing in a new wave of comfort footwear that also looks good, because comfort-led design is no longer a differentiator, it’s table stakes. What matters now is how a shoe feels over hours, not minutes. Whether it can move across settings without demanding a change. Whether it supports long walks, sudden plans, unstructured days, and even small aches and pains that we are quite willing to trade in for a pair of stilts, without becoming noticeable for the wrong reasons. Materials still matter, but only insofar as they serve ease, breathability, and durability in motion.
Sustainability and responsible sourcing have also entered the conversation more naturally. Not as virtue signals, but as part of thoughtful design that respects longevity. Footwear is no longer bought for one look or one moment. It’s chosen for repeat wear, for everyday mileage, for the kind of use that leaves a mark over time.
From my own experience in the footwear industry, I have found this insight to be consistent: people aren’t choosing shoes for occasions anymore. They’re choosing them for continuity. One pair that works across the day. One design that doesn’t ask for context or compromise. In that sense, good footwear isn’t trying to stand out. It’s trying to stay with you, quietly, comfortably, and without interruption.
What’s unfolding isn’t a rejection of fashion, but a quiet refinement of it. As performance blends into expression and function takes on personality, rigid categories begin to dissolve. Athleisure and sliders aren’t reshaping style because they’re casual, but because they are a reflection of how young India actually lives, choosing comfort unapologetically. Fashion, in turn, is simply learning to meet them there.
With comfort being the new baseline, brands will rise up to the occasion, and this could mean some exciting new avenues for innovation in the coming years.
