Eight Sustainable and Chic Activewear Brands

Barcelona-based brand Manola was founded by model and lifestyle influencer Belén Hostalet, who partnered with Alohas founder Alejandro Porras to launch the brand back in December 2020. Each piece in the neutrals-forward activewear line is produced from silky-soft ECONYL, a material that’s made with recycled plastic garbage like bottles and rugs. While the core line focuses on leggings, bike shorts, and sports bras, Manola has dipped its toes into both swimwear and lifestyle with trend-forward capsule collections of bathing suits, sweatshirts, and hoodies.

In addition to creating some of the best sweat suits on the market, Pangaia uses recycled materials and compostable packaging, and limits the amount of water and wastewater used in production. Sure, it’s less of an activewear brand and more of a post-workout brand, but don’t sleep on its collection of candy-colored leggings, bras, and windbreakers, all of which are made to compost over time. Plus, anyone who says they’d never do yoga in one of Pangaia’s super-comfortable hoodies is definitely lying.

Founded in 2018 by Abigail Stern—an alumna of brands like Hood by Air, Asics, and Nike—Matek set out to raise the bar on activewear. (It’s safe to say she succeeded—the brand is a function-meets-luxury take on ’80s-inspired skiwear.) While Stern acknowledges that putting any new clothing into the world is by and large not sustainable, she also tells Harper’s BAZAAR that creating “high-quality pieces that are meant to last forever, made thoughtfully both in material sourcing and functionality” can be done responsibly. Matek’s hero fabric, a recycled four-way stretch jersey made from deadstock sourced in Los Angeles, is just part of the brand’s efforts in sustainability: In addition to giving back 5 percent of all sale initiatives on-site, the brand’s trend-agnostic styles are also meant to live in your closet forever.

British designer Stella McCartney is notoriously committed to sustainability—and when she paired up with Adidas in 2005, it became the first-ever designer and activewear brand to collaborate. Since then, the partnership has set the standard for sustainable, fashion-first activewear.

Everyone’s favorite sustainable activewear brand, Girlfriend Collective, is largely responsible for ushering in a new kind of social awareness to the way our clothes are made, especially in the activewear space. The brand’s leggings and bras are made from recycled polyester (or RPET) using recycled fishing nets and other waste using ECONYL yarn; its tees and tanks are made from 100 percent cupro, a delicate fiber made from cotton waste, and its yarn is made in a zero-waste, zero-emission facility in Japan. Even more, the brand got a “Great” rating on industry watchdog Good on You.