It’s official, Singaporeans (including expats) are crazy about sports and fitness. According to a survey by the Singapore Sports Council, 54% of us do some form of exercise or sport at least once a week – our favourite active pastimes being walking, jogging or running. Question is what you wear if you’d like to be both fit AND conscious? – Here are Anisa Johnny’s suggestions to five of the best sustainable activewear brands available online or in Singapore.
Patagonia
Patagonia has been championing fashion sustainability and ecological awareness since the 1970s. Famous for its award winning ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ advertising campaign, the brand makes quality products for leisure, sports and adventure sports alike. Patagonia donates a percentage of their profits to environmental groups, has a meticulous sourcing policy and encourages customers to fix and reuse items. The brand ships internationally and is available locally via online retailers such as Zalora and Lazada and at many camping and outdoor retailers.
Howies
One of my favourite British brands. Like Patagonia, Howies make quality leisure and active wear with a longer product life-cycle. From leisure wear t-shirts, hoodies and waterproof jackets, they also specifically focus on cycling and running gear. We love that they offer product bundles where you can buy tops and bottoms and accessories AND save cash. Our favourite is the Bundle for runners which includes socks, drinking bottle, leggings and an outer jacket that is a PET free membrane that will keep you dry in the rain – runner or not.
Kusaga Athletic
An Australian brand that wants to bring active wear and sustainability together. Their range of leisure and sports T-shirts are made from Ecodry (keeps sweat and moisture from the skin) for both men and women and in 2016 they successfully launched ‘The Greenest T-shirt’ on earth campaign on Kickstarter and haven’t looked back since. Great to see a small company do so well.
Vyayama
For the minimalists out there, Vyayama makes sleek sports basics from cupro (cellulose fibre which means its made from cotton waste), modal (man-made cellulose from tree bark) and micromodal (man-made cellulose from trees so fully biodegradable) and natural luxury fabrics such as wool and cashmere. The fabrics are carefully selected and the brand is passionate about their manufacturing unit in Portugal.
First Base
First Base wins the prize for the cheekiest and catchiest’ name. The brand creates very wearable active wear, ethically sourced from factories in China. Each factory has been independently audited and is WRAP certified (see more here http://www.wrapcompliance.org/certification). Where some other brands have limited range of products, First Base has a wide range of merchandise from sports bras to outerwear, accessories and a range of organic cotton t-shirts.
