What “made with organic cotton” actually means

Walk into any activewear store and read a tag. Polyester, nylon, elastane, recycled PET. The language of modern workout clothing is the language of plastic. So when a brand says “made with organic cotton,” what does that actually mean? Here's how to decode the claims.

GOTS: the gold standard for organic fiber

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the world's leading standard for organic fibers. When cotton is GOTS-certified, it means the fiber was grown without synthetic pesticides or GMO seed, and processed under strict environmental and social criteria, with every step documented.

One honest nuance: GOTS certification applies at specific stages of the supply chain. Our cotton is certified at the fabric stage. The fabric itself carries the certification, and every meter is traceable through a GOTS transaction certificate. That's why we say our pieces are made with GOTS-certified organic cotton. Precise language matters to us.

OEKO-TEX Standard 100: tested for what touches skin

OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is a testing standard: fabric is analyzed for hundreds of substances known or suspected to be harmful, including heavy metals, formaldehyde, and certain dyes. Our fabric is tested free of harmful substances at the fabric stage, elastane included.

The 5% question

Our fabric is 95% organic cotton and 5% elastane. Why not 100%? Stretch. GOTS itself permits up to 5% elastane in certified fabric because a legging with zero stretch isn't a legging. We use the minimum that performance requires, and we'll always tell you exactly what's in the blend.

How to read any label

Three questions to ask of any “clean” activewear claim: What fiber is it, exactly, and in what percentages? Who certified it, and at what stage? Can the brand trace it back to the source? If a label can't answer all three, that tells you something too.