International Sweatpants Day

Everyone has one of those days sometimes. You get up, you attempt to go about your life as usual, but you just don’t have it in you. You feel sleepy, maybe your head hurts a little, and the thought of getting all dressed up in a suit and tie or high heels makes you want to crawl back into your warm bed—and that’s okay, we can’t all be feeling our absolute best 100% of the time, right? Luckily, there is a day dedicated specifically to this occasional mood: International Sweatpants Day. So if you know how it feels to just want to spend the day lounging around comfortably in your sweatpants, this is a day you should be celebrating!

History of International Sweatpants Day

The first pair of sweatpants was introduced in the 1920s by Émile Camuset, the founder of Le Coq Sportif. The first sweatpants to be made were simple knitted gray jersey pants that allowed athletes to stretch and run comfortably. Since then, traditionally, sweatpants have been ash-gray in color, but over the recent years, companies like Nike have put considerable effort into making them more attractive while at the same remaining just as comfortable as the original ones.

International Sweatpants Day was created to show people that wearing sweatpants doesn’t necessarily have to be embarrassing—after all, why should anyone be embarrassed of being comfortable? Life is too short to be wearing tight clothing all the time.

How to celebrate International Sweatpants Day

International Sweatpants Day is not just about spending the day wearing sweatpants or something equally comfortable, although that is definitely part of the fun involved. International Sweatpants Day is also about giving yourself a break from the often stressful and rushed lives many of us live. Wearing sweatpants means we want to be good to ourselves for a change, put our own comfort before our worries of what other people think of of us.

And that’s how we should spend this whole day: being good to ourselves, enjoying our lives without paying attention to what other people think about what we do, wear or say. So take a moment to think: what do you really feel like doing on this day? Is there a book lying around the house that you haven’t been able to get around to finishing for the last few months because every time you try, your boss calls you with another request? Has it been forever since you’ve had the time to take a real bath, settling instead for quick showers?

Have you been eating cheap microwave dinners every day for the last few weeks or even months because you lacked the time and energy to cook yourself a real meal? Or maybe it’s just been ages since you got a good night’s sleep? The possibilities are endless, but surely you get the idea: today is the day to be good to yourself for a change.

You deserve a break, to relax, to be comfortable, and this is your day to make that happen. International Sweatpants Day, as trivial as it sounds, may be just what a lot of today’s super-stressed professionals need to wind down after working every waking minute of every day.