Fixing What The Activewear Industry Won‘t Talk About

Photo: Kate Milford

Mary Bemis grew up in the deep freeze of Minnesota, in a household where environmental consciousness wasn’t a trend but a default setting. She was the child darting from room to room turning off forgotten lights, the one lowering the thermostat in winter to save energy until her parents worried the pipes might freeze. Sustainability wasn’t an abstract ideal for her. It lived in the day-to-day. Her path, however, didn’t lead straight into the world of conscious fashion. Mary left the Midwest for Los Angeles, craving warmth and new horizons, and studied economics with the intention of heading to New York to pursue finance. And she did. She landed at an investment bank, worked the archetypal 80-hour weeks and lived the fast-paced Wall Street rhythm so many ambitious twenty-somethings imagine they want. Except, in her case, the dream didn’t fit. She burned out. She left the job with no plan, just a recommendation from a colleague to read a book titled ´I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was´. The title alone cracked something open. Over,the next few months, she allowed herself to explore a wider, less linear sense of possibility. The book’s stories of unconventional paths loosened her grip on the “safe” track she had been following.

When she returned her attention to her personal life, she noticed something startling. While cleaning out her closet to resell pieces she assumed were silk or cashmere, she realized almost everything she owned— especially her activewear—was polyester. Plastic. At the same time, she was leaning into a cleaner, more conscious lifestyle in beauty and food. The dissonance hit with force. More than 60% of all clothing is now polyester, she discovered. In activewear, that number is closer to 95%. Add to that the chemicals layered onto synthetic fabrics—BPA among them, a well-documented endocrine-disrupting compound—and the picture sharpened. Sweat, open pores, and heat create ideal conditions for chemical absorption. The garments meant to support well-being were compromising it.

Out of this collision of burnout, curiosity, environmental ethos, and lived frustration, Reprise Activewear took shape. Mary leaned into what she knew intimately: the world of leggings, movement, and the daily uniform so many women live in. If she could remake any corner of the apparel industry, this was the one worth fighting for. Still, passion alone doesn’t launch a brand. Mary knew she lacked industry experience, so she signed up for night classes at FIT in New York—sustainable sourcing, marketing, legal basics—and spent a year attending classes from six to nine after work while holding a full-time job in advertising. There, in the heart of the district, she built relationships with patternmakers and small factories and learned the business brick by brick.

Reprise began with a Kickstarter campaign nearly eight years ago, raising just under $20,000 to produce its first run. From there, everything was bootstrapped. Without outside funding, the brand grew through pop-ups, word-of-mouth, intimate conversations with customers, and constant tinkering with its messaging. Early on, Mary led with sustainability—microplastic-free, planet-friendly activewear—but the market wasn’t ready. People cared, but not enough to switch brands. Comfort became the emphasis next. Then plant-based. It wasn’t until a major study surfaced two years ago revealing high levels of BPA in mainstream activewear that public awareness finally aligned with the mission she’d been championing from day one. That shift changed everything. Consumers began searching for “non-toxic activewear,” „plastic-free leggings,” and “plant-based clothes,” and Reprise’s painstaking education efforts suddenly met a wave of organic demand.

Today the brand manufactures its fabric and garments in Portugal, ships worldwide, and is expanding into wholesale to give more customers the chance to feel the difference of the fabric in person—a crucial factor that has converted thousands of shoppers on the spot. The journey, however, has been far from the frictionless ascent she once imagined. Eight years in, Mary laughs at her early assumptions that you design a product, put it online, and watch the growth curve rise. Instead, she became an accidental expert in trade regulations, freight logistics, digital marketing, and the unglamorous mechanics of a physical goods business. Would she do it again? Absolutely. Would she expect it to take eight years to take off?

Absolutely not. Yet she’s grateful for the naïveté that carried her into the unknown and the persistence that carried her through it. Reprise’s recent growth—tripling revenue organically—feels less like a lucky break and more like a long-earned shift in the cultural tide. For Mary, the mission remains bigger than product. It’s about reclaiming wellness from greenwashing, building truly non-toxic foundations, and helping consumers understand that sustainability doesn’t stop with skincare—it’s woven into every fabric touching the skin. And as Reprise continues its rise, she hopes one day to pass on the hard-won knowledge by supporting other women founders walking their own long, winding, deeply worthwhile paths.

www.repriseactivewear.com

@repriseactivewear