This week we caught up with Tribe Sports Creative Director Katy Biddulph to explore the inspiration behind the latest collection:

What was the inspiration behind the latest collection?
The Autumn Winter collection is a marriage of nature meeting performance innovation. Prints are inspired by the Earth from the above and its stunning cloud formations, we have also added subtle effects into some our luxury performance fabrics that represent atoms and connective tissue, finally marrying this with a wearable urban spirit. We also pushed the technical developments and have incorporated laser cutting and bonding for even lighter weight styles.

What is your favourite garment?
This season we are excited to launch our outerwear across men's and women's, designed to be your favourite go-to performance waterproof jacket. Both jackets are crafted in a lightweight performance-stretch waterproof material – waterproof up to 20,000mm and extremely breathable. Both jackets are also finished with adjustable storm cuffs, storm hems, pockets with media port, chin guards, easy-grab zip pullers and are complete with taped seams. The women's Jacket is a morph-jacket that can be worn three ways.

How do you decide what technical elements to include on each garment?
The most important aspect to any running kit is the fabric development process. We work with the finest mills in Italy and also engineer our own compilations into our Anatomical Engineered styles. After the fabric stage, it’s construction as well as paneling positions for enhanced breathability, support or fit. Then it’s off to be product tested by our team at Tribe as well as ambassadors.

What sets our Elite range apart from other running collections?
With any performance running or sports kit, you truly get what you pay for and it’s worth investing in quality. There is a lot of choice out there but you can often find that it’s a false economy to buy cheaper kit as it often deteriorates quite quickly which, for a runner is bad news - when the support starts to go, stitching starts to fray and chafe, and the elastane starts to split in areas under stress, or that horrid stench sets in that can’t be laundered out, the kit has deteriorated and needs replacing which can happen very quickly for runners using inferior kit. Creating quality apparel isn’t cheap to do, and the best materials come at a price due to the innovation, methodologies and testing required. We also only use the best trims to create a product with longevity.

How do these garments support the motion of a runner?
Every item we create is specifically designed for running and we put a lot of effort into the development process which sees us working on prototype after prototype, constantly refining the fit and function such as the right sleeve head shape, the correct gusset shape, the details, construction and fit. During this, the fabrics are tested for light resistance, recovery, pilling and wash care to give them longevity. The journey from inception to execution is generally around 12 months so there is a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into creating our ranges before we launch them to our loyal customer following.