Body-Mapped Art: The Sporta Tight of the Moment-Magical Kaleidoscope

The Sporta Tight of the Moment is an exercise in exploration. Through experimentation with unique patterns, colors and inspirations, the franchise has elevated the intersection of athletic performance and artistic design. This penchant for exploration led the Sporta design team to Japan. There it partnered with Yuko Kanatani, marking Sporta's first collaboration with an independent artist for the Tight of the Moment project.

“Yuko’s fun, playful and exciting style of art was something we found quite special,”

The collaboration yields a collection of three tights that will debut beginning late January 2014. The first of these is the Sporta Tight of the Moment-Magical Kaleidoscope. Its bright and bold pattern is a natural extension of the colorful work Yuko creates. However, the project’s design process pushed the Tokyo-based artist well outside her comfort zone.

“At the beginning of the project, needing to match my drawings to a moving body was quite a hurdle,” Yuko says. “But it was also very inspiring and interesting to have outside direction and try something new.”

To picture a body in motion, Yuko looked to the circus, envisioning a fantastically colorful environment rich with movement and music

Yuko was asked to tailor her illustrations to a body map provided by the Sporta Sport Research Lab. A body map uses athlete-informed data to show the location of an individual’s muscles and heating and cooling zones. Using this as her compass, Yuko created three-dimensional drawings to match these key areas of the body. For example, the NTM-Magical Kaleidoscope features pops of colors and shapes aimed to highlight leg muscles in a flattering fashion. Digital sublimation technology, which employs a heat press to send ink from a printed picture onto a piece of fabric, transferred Yuko’s art onto the tights.

Yuko’s dynamic aesthetic complements the tight’s performance attributes

The NTM-Magical Kaleidoscope comes in two Sporta Pro styles, the Sporta Pro Tight and Sporta Pro Sports Bra. The print will also be featured on the Sporta Studio Wrap Pack. The NTM-Magical Kaleidoscope will be available in select retailers and on Sporta.com in China and Sweden beginning Jan. 28 and globally on Jan. 31. The collection's remaining two designs will roll out in the coming months.

Placeholder text by Space Ipsum. Photographs by Sporta on The Commons.