Energise your day-to-day wardrobe with these six crucial sports-inspired pieces.

At this point in the season, which has been full of high-end sweats, superlative sneakers and souped-up activewear from designers across the board, it may feel as if we at MR PORTER are banging on a well-battered can when we say that 2015 is all about sportswear influences. But the rise and rise of this trend cannot be understated – like House of Cards, it seems to be automatically renewed each season. As we launch MR PORTER SPORT – a whole new category of product on MRPORTER.COM that will keep you covered for your active life – we thought it worth recapping that, even if your primary work-out consists of flicking through Instagram with your thumb, sporting style is here to stay. Here’s how some key sports pieces have become stalwarts of the contemporary wardrobe.

It wasn’t long ago that certain shops wouldn’t let you in if you had the audacity to wear a sweatshirt with – gasp – a hood attached to its collar. Which is as much to say that though the history of the hoodie is long (it’s been around since the 1930s), it has also been bumpy, style-wise. This one by Milan-based designer Mr Neil Barrett, however, changes all that, offering a supremely high-end version of the classic athletic style that will raise eyebrows for the right reason (approval, not suspicion). From the futuristic cut, with slightly elongated hem, to the gleaming side-seam zips, to the superlative bonded jersey fabric – which is soft as well as pleasingly stiff, cutting a more sharp silhouette than your standard loopback cotton – all the details are spot-on. Complement its minimal impact with indigo jeans and a pair of simple graphic sneakers from Valentino.

Bringing an element of the sporty into your wardrobe doesn’t always have to be an obvious move – the blazer, after all, has in its history also been known as the “sports jacket”, differentiated from the suit jacket by its neater fit and shorter length. This season, Parisian brand Lanvin, a pioneer of using tech and sporting fabrics in luxury menswear, has taken the “sports jacket” idea one step further with this example in bonded jersey (that is, two layers of thick jersey fused together). The result is a versatile piece that’s sturdy, soft to the touch and virtually impossible to crease. It’s the gentlemanly way to nod to sportswear in a smart-casual look. Take it out on the weekend (sun permitting) with some light cotton chinos and an indigo shirt.

The sweatshirt is no longer just a piece for slumming around at the weekends – it’s a wardrobe staple. Mr Thom Browne knows this well. Though he launched his eponymous brand in 2003 with a range of high-quality and adventurously cut men’s made-to-measure suits, he has since issued a superlative collection of sweats – decorated with simple stripes and tags as if pulled from a boxing gym of yesteryear – which reappear each season and quickly sell out. Channel some of Mr Browne’s nostalgia with a pair of grey wool trousers and some schoolboy black lace-ups.

One of the more interesting recent twists in the sportswear phenomenon is that, in addition to sweatpants, hoodies and the like, some pieces that would never previously have been considered remotely “on-trend” are receiving makeovers from the international arbiters of style. Among the pieces getting the once-over this season is the runner’s windbreaker, and among the inquisitive designers having a go is Balenciaga’s Mr Alexander Wang. What separates Mr Wang’s take on this eminently practical down-filled piece from its mundane brothers and sisters in the activewear world is the way he has embellished the characteristically sporty two-tone pattern on the jacket with a paint-like splatter effect. But he’s remained faithful to the garment’s original purpose – it will protect you from the adverse elements and even has a packaway hood. Look trim and technical by wearing it with some slim black jeans and a pair of futuristic Raf Simons sneakers.

At some point, one brave man decided it was acceptable to wear sweatpants outside the gym. Thanks be to him, because now the style has become so popular as to infringe upon the world of traditional, cigar-smoking, things-were-better-in-my-day trousers, enabling designers to introduce some useful design tweaks, and give us all a few more options from the waist down. This hybrid from Maison Margiela, combining wool formal trousers with a drawstring waistband, are a nice example of how things have come along in a sweatpant-tolerant world. Simmer at a sartorial temperature exactly halfway between smart and casual by wearing them with a black tee and zip-embellished blazer from Lanvin.

Some sportswear pieces, such as the classic varsity jacket, are so perfectly pitched that they can be worn today much as they were in the 1950s or 1960s. So why change them? For a clothing obsessive such as White Mountaineering’s Mr Yosuke Aizawa – whose stock in trade is incredible reinventions of outdoors garments – it’s more a question of “why not”? So here we have it: the jacket for all those out there that have been caught in the rain while going collegiate. It looks nothing like your typical windbreaker or mac, yet it’s fully waterproof. In short, it’s a triumph of style and function and, thanks to its light weight, will continue to be a viable outerwear option as summer really begins to kick in. Accentuate its wonderfully muted colour palette with some navy cargo shorts and Common Projects sneakers.