5 women-led athleisure brands making size-inclusive activewear

Over the two years of house arrest amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many have shifted from formal wear to athleisure — comfortable and casual clothing suitable for everyday wear and exercise. 

Now, with continuous work from home juggled up with exercise time, one finishes a meeting and goes straight into a yoga session mid-day, or the seven to 15-minute online workout sessions, comfortable clothing comes off as a great plus. 

An AI-driven size advisor, True Fit's Fashion Genome, analysed data from over 17,000 brands and 180 million users and found in the UK, athleisure orders jumped 84 percent since the start of the pandemic. 

Interestingly, upcoming brands are breaking barriers by making athleisure clothing for all sizes. It’s 2022, and discriminating against someone by not having their size in clothing is not cool. These brands are making that extra effort to tap into a wider market by being size-inclusive.

HerStory talks about five such athleisure brands led by women, which pride themselves on being size-inclusive.

BlissClub

Founded in 2020, Bengaluru-based Bliss Club has become an instant favourite of many in the Indian market for coming up with the “Ultimate” range of tights — not only size-inclusive but also come with pockets. 

No one knows the true value of pockets more than women. Industry experts denied them in the name of faux pockets in jeans and pocketless clothing. They thought women didn’t have things to keep when they went out. 

BlissClub bridged this gap by creating tights that come with not one but four pockets, making it popular among influencers and women in general. 

The community-first women's activewear brand recently raised a seed round of $2.25 million led by Elevation Capital (previously SAIF Partners). BlissClub will use the funds to strengthen and grow its team, product development, and marketing.

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Aastey

Another pandemic-born business, aastey, was launched in 2020, when founders, Jeevika and Kanupriya, bonded over their common struggle with their bodies and discovered how body image issues are universal.

A sustainable athleisure D2C brand for all body types, Aastey specialises in the “three Fs” of fashion — form, fit, and function. It also added a fourth ‘F’ — fabric.

Aastey’s ‘the werk it’ set — a sports bra and matching leggings — promises 16 different sizes, designed for comfort and style, and can be worn from morning till night. 

Recently, the company launched gender-neutral products to diminish the boundaries between what one can wear based on their gender. 

SilverTraq

Founder Dhriti Badani wanted to give athleisure a fun edit, and that’s why SilverTraq came up with a tye and dye athleisure line — moving beyond the boring colours while chilling or working at home. 

SilverTraq’s four-way stretch workout wear — made of polyester derived from recycled pet bottles — has sweat-wicking, quick-dry, and anti-odour features to keep you feeling fresh and dry after your workout.

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Dee Clothing

Comfort over everything seems to be the motto of this brand by sister-duo Deeksha Khurana and Kritika Khurana.

Dee Clothing aims to blend style and comfort with its oversized hoodies and joggers. With a compact product line, it goes up to size XXL. 

The startup’s founders are content creators with huge social media followings, which garnered sizeable attention towards Dee Clothing’s clothing line.

SpiritAnimal

New Delhi-based Kriteesha Jain was struggling to find activewear in her size when she decided to launch SpiritAnimal.

With the motto of owning your size and not bogging down by the body size standard set by society, the startup exclusively creates an athleisure line for plus sizes between UK size 12 and UK size 34.

Having your unique sizing in athleisure is not a luxury anymore, and SpiritAnimal took the initiative to establish the same.