CERTIFICATIONS
The fashion industry is full of greenwashing. We chose a different starting point.
We stay open about what is better for your body, and what is not. About where we improve, and where we still fall short.
LAINE HILL is not better for the environment. Buying something new will always weigh heavier on the planet than not buying at all.
We make sportswear. Sportswear is consumption. It is processed. It is shipped. It uses energy and water and the time of people on the other side of the world. None of that becomes neutral because we use the word "organic."
Raw is not the same as functional
There is no such thing as completely untouched fabric. Even the most natural, most organic fibres go through a process to become wearable, durable, and functional.
Cotton is grown, picked, ginned, spun, knitted, washed, finished, cut, sewn. At every step there is a choice, what chemicals to use, how much water to use, how the workers are paid, what happens to the waste. We get into how those processing choices change the final fabric in why two leggings with the same composition feel different.
The brands that say "100% natural" without explaining any of that are skipping the part where they made choices. Either because they do not want you to look, or because they have not looked themselves.
What we actually do
Ninety-two percent of our fabric is organic cotton. The cotton is grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers. The processing chain, the part most brands do not talk about, is audited for chemical use, water treatment, and worker safety.
Eight percent of our fabric is spandex. Spandex is synthetic. We use the smallest amount we found we could use without losing the stretch and recovery a sports legging needs. We do not pretend it is something else. The full reasoning is in why we got activewear wrong.
What we deliberately do not claim
We do not say "100% natural." Eight percent of our fabric is not natural.
We do not say "plastic free." Spandex is, in chemistry terms, a polymer. It is plastic at a percentage we are willing to accept and explain.
We do not say "zero microplastics." Spandex sheds at a different rate than polyester, and the data on activewear-specific shedding is incomplete. Saying "zero" would be a guess dressed up as a fact.
We do not say "carbon neutral" or "climate positive." Those words almost always rely on offsets that are themselves contested. We are not buying our way to a clean conscience.
What we do say: polyester-free. 92% organic cotton. Minimal synthetic content. Transparent about the percentages.
What greenwashing usually looks like in activewear
A few patterns to look for, on any brand, including ones that are doing some of this well.
"100% organic cotton" on a stretch garment. A pure cotton sports legging does not exist as a functional product. If the legging stretches and recovers, there is elastane, spandex, or another synthetic in there. The "100%" is referring to the organic part in cotton, not the fabric.
"Recycled" activewear. Most recycled activewear is recycled polyester. Recycled or virgin, it is still polyester. It still sheds microplastics. The recycling step is good. The fabric is still plastic. We unpack that fully in is recycled polyester actually sustainable.
"Eco collection" or "conscious line." Neither of those terms has a protected definition. A brand can label whatever it wants as a "conscious" line, including pieces made in the same factory as their regular line, with the same materials, plus a hangtag.
"Sustainable" without a specific reference. Sustainable compared to what? Made how? Audited by whom? If the answer is not on the page, the word is doing the work that data should be doing.
"Carbon neutral" through offsets. Some offsets are real. Most are not measurably effective. A brand calling itself carbon neutral via offsets has not necessarily reduced its emissions, it has bought a story about them.
None of this means every brand using these words is dishonest. Some are doing real work. But the words themselves do nothing, the data has to be behind them. Research from Stockholm University found thousands of chemicals detectable in finished clothing, many persisting after repeated washing, a reminder that what is in the fabric matters more than what is on the marketing.
The balance we are looking for
We are trying to find a workable point between three things that pull in different directions.
What is good for your body. The fabric should not be a chemical exposure. It should not irritate your skin. It should not trap heat or bacteria. The skin side of that is in why your sportswear makes you itch.
What is reasonable for the environment. The fibre should be grown and processed with as little chemical and water cost as possible. The supply chain should be auditable.
What actually works during a workout. The legging should stretch. The seams should hold. The fabric should not pill after three washes.
You cannot maximise all three at once. Pure organic cotton stretches and recovers worse than a blend. Pure merino is more expensive than most people can spend on activewear. Pure synthetic ticks the performance boxes and loses everything else.
Our answer is 92/8 cotton-spandex, transparent percentages, no greenwashing claims. Not the perfect garment. The honest one.
What we ask of you in return
Read labels. Not just ours.
If a brand is not telling you what is in the fabric, ask. If they are using words like "eco" or "conscious" without a specific number behind it, ask what the number is. If they cannot tell you, that itself is information.
We made our choices visible because we want you to be able to compare. The more brands have to defend their numbers, the better the whole industry has to get.
That is the standard we are trying to raise.
LAINE HILL
Continue reading
- For half a century we got it wrong, what polyester does, why we built something different, and what is actually in our set.
- What GOTS, OEKO-TEX and Fair Wear actually mean, which certifications mean something, and what each one ignores.
- Is recycled polyester actually sustainable, the four claims behind recycled activewear, fact-checked.
Common questions
Why don't you call yourselves sustainable?
Because the word has lost most of its meaning. Almost every clothing brand calls itself sustainable now, including the ones manufacturing fast fashion in factories with no audit. We prefer to describe what we actually do, 92% GOTS-certified organic cotton, 8% spandex for stretch, transparent supply chain, and let the work do the claiming.
What is greenwashing in activewear?
Greenwashing is when a brand uses environmental language without the substance to back it up. In activewear it usually shows up as '100% organic cotton' claims that ignore the synthetic blend percentage, 'recycled' polyester sold as eco-friendly even though it still sheds microplastics, or vague terms like 'conscious line' and 'eco collection' that have no protected meaning.
What does GOTS certification actually cover?
GOTS, the Global Organic Textile Standard, audits both the agricultural side (organic fibre, no synthetic pesticides) and the textile-processing side (chemical use, dyes, water treatment, worker safety in processing). It is one of the few labels that covers the chain from farm to finished product. It does not, however, audit fair labour wages, that is what Fair Wear Foundation covers separately.
Is bamboo fabric actually natural?
Most bamboo fabric is technically rayon. The bamboo plant is dissolved in an industrial chemical bath and extruded as fibre. The plant itself is renewable. The process is not clean. Closed-loop versions like lyocell are better, but the marketing usually does not distinguish between them.