Abstract
With increases in the amount of spare time by many and with increased social interest in health, the sportswear market is steadily growing. Thus, sportswear companies are putting more effort into developing their websites for differentiation strategies. It is possible to deliver effective images with the use of proper colors in websites. This study aimed to analyze the colors of websites of sportswear brands' and to compare their characteristics. Thirty-seven brands were chosen and classified into three groups: active sportswear, outdoor wear and golf wear. 168 color samples in total as main colors, sub-colors and accent colors were collected from the first screen of each websites. The colors were analyzed by Musell's 10 hues and by the 12 tone classifications of PCCS. The results indicated that white is the color most often used as the main color and sub-color on these websites. There were differences among the colors of the three groups. Both active sportswear and outdoor wear have a similar tendency in terms of their use of colors and tones, while golf wear is different from these two groups. Active sportswear websites and outdoor wear websites frequently used red and vivid, bright tones for their accent colors. In comparison, Green Yellow and light grayish tones were most commonly used as accent colors in golf wear websites.
