athleisure
(19)
Greyson Clothiers makes golf clothes with somewhere else to go
A Ralph Lauren veteran saw a wardrobe problem hiding in plain sight: golf clothes that belonged only on a golf course. Greyson built its answer around Italian stretch fabric, sharp tailoring and a wolf with social ambitions.
Mack Weldon made underwear worth buying twice
A better waistband was only the beginning. Mack Weldon’s real experiment is whether everyday comfort can turn a reluctant shopper into a regular customer.
How CARAA Turned One Fussy $400 Bag Into a 10-Year DTC Brand - By Letting Its First 100 Customers Complain
CARAA did not begin with a giant catalog or an ad blitz. It began with one convertible Studio Bag, a test run of 100 real customers, and enough complaints to turn product feedback into the company’s operating system.
Harriet Lee
Harriet Lee is a New York-based marketing leader at ONDO, the direct-to-consumer apparel brand known for its no-slip, no-show socks made from Woolmark-certified Australian merino wool and organic cotton. She describes her work as 'data-driven brand innovation,' pairing a creative fashion background from 3.1 Phillip Lim with the analytics-first playbook of a Shopify-native e-commerce brand. She helps ONDO turn a mundane product - socks - into a category built on a no-slip guarantee, sustainability, and a loyal 20,000-plus five-star review community.
Jack Reynolds
Jack Reynolds is the Chief Marketing Officer of Free People and its activewear offshoot FP Movement, both part of Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN). He was promoted to the CMO role in April 2021 after several years running e-commerce and digital marketing for the brand, and before that spent roughly 13 years at Bertelsmann Media Group managing online and direct programs. He studied English and Philosophy at Dickinson College and originally wanted to work in music as an A&R representative, drifting into marketing while figuring out how to promote artists. Under his marketing leadership, FP Movement has grown from a single 2020 store into a fast-expanding activewear label, backed by campaigns like the 2024 Anomaly-created "Stand Out, Never Still" (starring a pink sheep named Tilly and five Olympic hopefuls) and the 2025 signing of snowboarder Bea Kim as the brand's first winter-sports ambassador ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Katie Babineau
Katie Babineau is the Chief Marketing Officer of Beyond Yoga, the Culver City premium activewear brand acquired by Levi Strauss & Co. in 2021. She spent roughly fifteen years in consumer technology - Sony Electronics, GoPro, Apple via TBWA\Media Arts Lab, and Snap Inc., where she was Global Head of Marketing - before joining Beyond Yoga as VP of Marketing in 2024 and stepping up to CMO. In 2025 she led the brand's first full reset, a platform called Seek Beyond built around the idea of progress over perfection, with actor and writer Issa Rae as the brand's first celebrity partner writing and performing a spoken-word anthem. She brings a test-and-learn technology mindset to apparel, argues loudly that brand and growth marketing should never be separated, and prefers hyperlocal, in-person community events to another round of picture-perfect ad creative.
Beyond Yoga
Beyond Yoga is a Culver City, California activewear and athleisure brand founded in 2005 by Jodi Guber Brufsky and Michelle Wahler. Built around a body-positive, size-inclusive philosophy (XXS to 3X) and its signature buttery-soft Spacedye fabric, the female-founded label makes leggings, sports bras, loungewear, and lifestyle apparel designed to move from studio to street. Acquired by Levi Strauss & Co. in 2021 for roughly $400 million, Beyond Yoga has grown past $100 million in annual revenue and is expanding its physical retail footprint under CEO Nancy Green.
BYLT Basics
BYLT Basics is a Southern California premium apparel brand that reengineers everyday wardrobe staples - tees, polos, joggers and outerwear - with heavier, longer-lasting performance fabrics and tailored fits. Founded in 2016 by Eric Mear, who was frustrated that basic black T-shirts fell apart after a few washes, the direct-to-consumer label built its reputation on its flagship Drop-Cut silhouette and has grown into an omnichannel business spanning men's, women's and kids' lines sold online, in retail stores, and at wholesale partners like Nordstrom, shipping to over 50 countries.
Fabletics
Fabletics is a membership-based activewear brand founded in 2013 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. Built on a VIP subscription model that pairs monthly credits with data-driven personalization, it sells women's and men's activewear, footwear, swimwear, loungewear, and medical scrubs across e-commerce and 120+ retail stores. In 2025 the company crossed $1 billion in annual revenue with more than 3 million active customers, roughly 2.7 million of them VIP members.
ONDO
ONDO is a New York-based direct-to-consumer apparel brand that reinvented the no-show sock. Founded by former JP Morgan banker Daniel Shim in 2020, ONDO uses a patented, cut-and-sewn silicone grip strip - rather than the usual rubber dots - to keep low-cut socks from slipping off. Built on Woolmark-certified Australian merino wool and certified organic cotton, the brand backs every pair with a No Slip Guarantee and has grown to more than 20,000 five-star reviews while expanding into headbands, compression crew socks, and other everyday essentials.
Rhone
Rhone is a Stamford, Connecticut premium performance apparel brand founded in 2014, best known for pioneering men's activewear that bridges the gym, the office and everyday life. Built around proprietary technical fabrics and its signature Commuter collection, Rhone sells direct-to-consumer online and through a growing retail footprint while championing men's mental health through its Mind & Muscle events and partnerships with the NBA and LPGA.
Title Nine
Title Nine is a women-owned outdoor and active apparel brand founded in 1989 by Missy Park and named after the Title IX law that opened school sports to women. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, it designs and sells sports bras, activewear, swimwear, and outdoor clothing built specifically for women's bodies. What began as a Bay Area mail-order catalog has grown into an estimated $100M direct-to-consumer and retail business - the largest independently owned retailer of women's fitness clothing - staffed overwhelmingly by women athletes and led by an all-women executive team. Alongside apparel, Title Nine has invested heavily in female entrepreneurs through its annual Pitchfest competitions.
Rob Kent
Rob Kent is Head of Marketing (CMO) at Vuori, the Carlsbad, California performance-apparel brand valued at around $5.5 billion. A Cannes Grand Prix-winning brand and creative leader with roughly two decades in the business, he spent a decade running Nike's global brand marketing work at the agency R/GA before crossing over to lead marketing for one of the fastest-growing names in activewear. His career runs from British editorial publishing through blue-chip tech clients to some of Nike's most talked-about brand work.
Vuori
Vuori is a Carlsbad, California-based performance apparel company that blends athletic function with casual style. Founded in 2015 by Joe Kudla, it started as a direct-to-consumer men's activewear brand rooted in the coastal Southern California lifestyle and grew into a broad athleisure label for men and women. Known for soft technical fabrics like its DreamKnit and Ponto lines, Vuori sells online, through its own stores, and via wholesale partners including Nordstrom, REI and Equinox. A 2024 secondary investment led by General Atlantic and Stripes valued the company at $5.5 billion.
Ryan Heller
Ryan Heller is the Chief Marketing Officer of Fabletics, the membership-based activewear brand headquartered in El Segundo, California. He leads the company's creative, media and acquisition, CRM, brand partnerships and PR functions. A data-driven marketer with more than a decade inside the TechStyle Fashion Group family of brands, he rose from Vice President to Senior Vice President of Marketing and helped launch customer acquisition for Savage X Fenty before taking the top marketing seat at Fabletics in early 2021.
Paragon Fitwear
Paragon Fitwear is a direct-to-consumer women's activewear brand from Ada, Michigan, best known for Sculptseam - a patented hidden-scrunch seam that shapes the glutes without an obvious ruched look. Started in a garage in 2013, the brand builds performance leggings, shorts, sports bras and loungewear around proprietary fabrics like RecStretch, UltraLux and the recycled Reluna, and sells almost entirely online to women who lift.
Ty Haney
Ty Haney is a consumer-brand founder who built Outdoor Voices into a category-defining activewear label starting in 2013, was pushed out in 2020, and rebuilt from scratch. She now runs Try Your Best (TYB), a community and loyalty platform used by more than 200 consumer brands, and in 2025 returned as CEO of Outdoor Voices after its acquisition by Consortium Brand Partners. She also co-founded the plant-based energy brand Joggy.
The Aruna Project
The Aruna Project is a Cincinnati-based nonprofit athleisure brand that creates lifelong freedom for survivors of sex trafficking through employment supported by holistic care. Founded in 2014 by Ryan and April Berg after time spent in Mumbai's red-light districts, Aruna employs survivor artisans in India and the US to craft premium bags, totes, and hair accessories - with 100% of sales revenue reinvested into freeing, employing, and empowering women. Its 'Freedom Business' model reports an 86% sustained freedom rate versus a 23% industry standard, and its national Aruna Run 5K series mobilizes thousands of runners to 'Run for Her Freedom.'
Barry's
Barry's is the boutique fitness brand that turned the group workout into a nightclub. Founded in West Hollywood in 1998, it pioneered the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) class with its signature Red Room - low lights, loud music, treadmills and free weights - and helped launch the boutique fitness industry. Today Barry's runs roughly 90 studios across more than a dozen countries, sells a Fuel Bar nutrition line and a digital platform (Barry's X), and draws millions of class visits a year.