If you've already swapped to natural deodorant and non-toxic skincare, low-tox activewear might be the next gap in your routine. Most conventional gym wear is made from polyester and nylon, finished with chemical treatments for moisture-wicking, odour resistance, or stretch, and it sits against sweaty, warm skin (one of the most absorbent parts of the body) for hours at a time.

Independent testing backs up the concern. A report from the Californian Center for Environmental Health found some polyester sports bras and athletic tops contained far higher levels of BPA than local health guidelines allow, a chemical linked to hormone disruption. PFAS ("forever chemicals"), used in water- and sweat-resistant finishes, are another common culprit in performance fabrics.

The good news: you don't have to give up support, stretch, or performance to find non-toxic activewear. Here are five of the best low-tox activewear brands in Australia, all doing it properly.

What Makes Activewear "Low-Tox"?

Before the brand list, a quick primer on what actually makes activewear low-tox:

• GOTS-certified organic cotton or OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification — third-party verification that fabrics are free from harmful chemical residues, rather than just a brand's own claim
• Natural fibres like organic cotton, bamboo, merino wool, or hemp instead of virgin polyester and nylon
• PFAS-free, phthalate-free finishes — many "sweat-wicking" or "quick-dry" treatments rely on these chemicals
• Plant-based or low-impact dyes rather than synthetic azo dyes

5 Best Low-Tox Activewear Brands in Australia

1. Bai Active

Bai Active is built around a simple mission: freeing activewear from plastic. Instead of the recycled-bottle polyester common across the sustainable activewear space, Bai chooses natural fabrics where possible, buttery bamboo, organic cotton, and Tencel Modal with only the minimal spandex needed for stretch. Every fabric is certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100 and GOTS 6.0. It's a female-founded brand, produced by a women-led tailor team in Bali that the founder works with directly, and packaging is plastic-free too. If your low-tox checklist includes "no synthetic overload, full stop," this is one of the more values-driven picks on the market.

2. Nagnata

Sydney-based and founded by former fashion designer Laura May Gibbs, Nagnata is the label that made natural-fibre activewear genuinely covetable. Pieces are built primarily from superfine merino wool and organic cotton, engineered so only natural fibre touches the skin even where a small amount of synthetic filament is used for stretch and recovery. Sleek, minimal, studio-to-street silhouettes, this is the brand your Pilates instructor is probably already wearing. Premium pricing to match.

3. Pinky & Kamal

A Melbourne-founded label making yoga and activewear from GOTS-certified organic cotton, bamboo, and hemp blends (typically 90% organic cotton to 10% elastane for stretch), ethically produced in Bali. Soft, seamless, body-positive pieces in a genuinely fun colour palette rather than the usual black-and-nude activewear uniform. A tree gets planted with every sale through One Tree Planted.

4. WildBody

Founded by CrossFit athlete Jade Payne after a cancer diagnosis prompted her to look closely at what she was wearing daily, WildBody makes GOTS-certified organic cotton activewear free from pesticides, PFAS, and toxic dyes. It's genuinely size-inclusive, styles are custom-graded from size 4 to 22 rather than scaled up as an afterthought and $2 from every order goes to cancer research. Worth knowing: the range currently leans toward yoga and pilates styles rather than high-impact training gear.

5. ZONE by Lydia

Created by Olympic aerial skiing champion turned wellness advocate Lydia Lassila, ZONE by Lydia takes a holistic approach across activewear and broader lifestyle pieces, with an emphasis on natural materials.

How to Start Building a Low-Tox Activewear Wardrobe

Overhauling your entire activewear wardrobe at once is expensive and, frankly, unnecessary. A more sustainable approach, for your wallet and the planet, is to prioritise the pieces that spend the most time against your skin and in your most absorbent areas first: sports bras, leggings, and underwear.

Low-tox swaps does not mean throwing everything away. Start with switching your sports bra and underwear to natural fibres, and then replace ither items as they wear out. Meaningfully cuts down your skin's exposure to chemical finishes without requiring a full wardrobe reset.