Looking for the latest in high performance fitness apparel? How about a shirt that’s healthy, earth friendly, with a social message attached as well?
After running a race during which his red sports shirt bled dyes that ran down his leg and colored his shorts, socks and shoes, Atayne founder, Jeremy Litchfield, got a little worried about the chemicals he was exposing his body to and set out to create a better line of sports performance apparel. And he’s done it! Using trash, essentially, Atayne now makes clothing out of recycled polyester (from recycled plastic bottles) and the activated carbon from coconut shells.
"The idea is to blend the promotion of an active lifestyle with an environmental and social message."
The current version of the shirts feature two designs: reduce. reuse. recycle. run., and another that reads run hard tread lightly. At Atayne, they call this “performance with a point of view.” Later this summer they’ll be launching more than a dozen new logo designs featuring a variety of activities from running to yoga to climbing to paddling. They say, “The idea is to blend the promotion of an active lifestyle with an environmental and social message.”
And because 80% of a garment’s environmental impact happens during the washing and drying of the garment, Atayne’s tops are outfitted with a “loop” on the back neck to encourage people to simply rinse and hang their shirt in the shower, and forget about taking it to the laundry room all together.
Not enough reasons to check out this cool company? Here’s one more. They’ve put together a team of “trash runners” who race their way through marathons with a retro-fitted baby jogger, picking up trash along the way. Right now the trash runners are hitting the streets in Chicago but you can expect to see, and hopefully join, them in other cities throughout the summer.
Though I’m not much of a runner, I love to slip on my long-sleeve POV top after a particularly sweaty yoga class. The shirts run true to size, can be purchased on-line and in select retailers, and start at $38.
