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Girlfriend Collective has taken the sustainable activewear market by storm in recent years. We take a deep dive into the fitness brand and ask, is Girlfriend Collective ethical?
Founded by husband and wife duo Ellie Dinh and Quang Dinh, Girlfriend Collective was created to provide an ethical solution to the pollution-filled activewear market.
The sustainable sportswear brand creates chic, supportive, and size-inclusive activewear, in a range of dreamy colors and styles, including sustainable leggings, cycle shorts, sports bras, and sport dresses.
Ecothes Opinion: Girlfriend Collective Sustainability Rating
What we like: The brand’s commitment to using eco-friendly and recycled materials goes above and beyond many other activewear brands. We also like the brand’s ethical manufacturing. The brand creates its activewear ethically in an SA8000 certified factory, ensuring workers have safe, supportive working conditions and are paid a fair wage.
What we think could be better: We’d like to see greater transparency around the brand’s carbon emissions in its supply chain and what further steps the brand is taking to reduce its carbon footprint in its supply chain.
What Materials Does Girlfriend Collective Use?
Rather than using virgin polyester, which is environmentally intensive to make, Girlfriend chooses to use recycled materials instead.
RPET
The brand creates its famous compressive leggings and sports bras from a material known as RPET – which is a recycled polyester originating from recycled plastic bottles – and spandex to give stretch.
For example, one pair of Girlfriend Collective leggings are made from 25 recycled water bottles, and bras are made from 11.
Using recycled plastic bottles and turning them into fabric reduces the amount of pollution in both marine environments and landfills, as plastic bottles don’t biodegrade. In addition, RPET generates almost 80% fewer carbon emissions than producing its virgin polyester counterpart.
ECONYL® yarn
Girlfriends LITE collection is made from ECONYL®, a regenerated Nylon regenerated from recycled materials, including fishing nets, old carpets, and landfill waste. You can read more about the process here.
Using ECONYL, Girlfriend can save carbon emissions and reduce marine and landfill pollution.
Cupro
The primary material for Girlfriend Collective’s t-shirts and tank tops is Cupro.
Cupro is a soft and silky fabric produced from waste cotton fibers surrounding the cottonseed, known as a linter, which would otherwise be discarded.
Is Girlfriend Collective Carbon Neutral?
No, Girlfriend Collective is not a carbon-neutral certified company. In addition, there is no mention on the brand’s website around plans to work towards a carbon-neutral brand model.
Where are Girlfriend Collective Clothes Made?
Girlfriend Collective partners with a Danish-owned factory in Hanoi, Vietnam, to ethically make its activewear.
This factory is SA8000 certified, ensuring no child labor, safe working conditions, and fair wages.
The factory is audited regularly to ensure it complies with strict codes of conduct involving health and safety, forced labor, working hours, and more, which you can read on Girlfriends’ website.
What packaging does Girlfriend Collective use?
Girlfriend Collective packaging is 100% recyclable and comes from recycled materials; this includes the hang tags on products.
Is Girlfriend Collective Cruelty-Free?
All of Girlfriend Collectives’ products are vegan; the sustainable brand doesn’t use any animal-derived products in their collection.
Where Can I Buy Girlfriend Collective?
We’ve added a couple of websites you can shop Girlfriend Collective. Alternatively, you can shop directly from the brands’ website; they ship worldwide.
Brands Like Girlfriend Collective
If you like Girlfriend Collective, we recommend checking out these similar sustainable activewear brands doing good for people and the planet.
1. Allbirds
Sustainability: B Corporation and climate-neutral certified brand creating eco-friendly running shoes and activewear from natural materials.
Materials: Natural materials, including eucalyptus fibers and merino wool.
Ships to: Worldwide
2. Organic Basics
Sustainability: Climate-neutral Danish brand, creating minimalist basics and activewear from organic cotton. Organic Basics is a certified B corporation.
Materials: Organic cotton, recycled material, Tencel Lyocell.
Ships to: Worldwide
3. Boody
Sustainability: Australian B Corp, creating soft and silky activewear and basics from organic bamboo fibers.
Materials: Bamboo fibers, Eco-friendly fabrics including Tencel
Ships to: Worldwide
4. DAY/WON
Sustainability: size-inclusive activewear made in the USA from recycled material.
Materials: Recycled materials
Ships to: US & International
Wrapping Up: Is Girlfriend Collective Ethical?
We hope you enjoyed reading the article, if you have any feedback please let us know in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this post, don’t miss our guide to eco friendly running shoes and organic hoodies.
