11 female-founded fitness brands to shop from on International Women’s Day

Celebrate International Women’s Day – or any day, for that matter – with these brilliant female-founded fitness brands that will help you feel powerful in whatever sport or activity you’re doing. 

Want to overhaul your fitness regime while supporting female-founded brands? Gone are the days of having to fork out big bucks to huge corporations that don’t put as much thought behind the brand. There are plenty of brilliant brands intent on helping us to move better, eat healthier and sleep tighter – and they are founded and led by women.

This International Women’s Day, get dressed up in your most stylish kit, grab your sustainable mat, and move in whatever way makes you feel most powerful. 

What better way to celebrate than working up a sweat and supporting brands made by and for women? Check out our favourite female-founded fitness and health products below:

ACTIVEWEAR BRANDS FOUNDED BY WOMEN

• DAMIHOW

  Supporting female-founded brands is great, but supporting Black-owned female-founded brands is something that the fitness industry needs to get more used to. 

  DAMIHOW is the brainchild of Dami Howells – one of GUAP’s 30 Under 30 Black Creatives list. This functional fitness brand specialises in clothes that look as good while wearing on a date, as they do on the track or in the gym. 

  Remember last summer’s cycling frenzy? It’s probably a good idea to get your hands on a pair of khaki zip-up bike shorts before spring, while there’s still some left. 

  Buy now

• TALA

  Sustainable style is at the heart of Grace Beverley’s brand TALA, with efforts being made to ensure that every part of the production process involves fair wages, anti-discrimination policies and regulations around working overtime. 

  You can read more about TALA’s factories and textile partners here. Plus, TALA is all about representing a wide range of bodies modelling their clothes. It’s about time we saw more bodies that look like our own when shopping for activewear. 

• ZAAZEEUK

  Mancunian Deborah Todd founded ZAAZZEE in 2014. It was inevitable that she’d enter the garment business – her aunt was a seamstress and Deborah lives in Ancoats, a part of Manchester that was once home to huge cotton mills. 

  Mixing her heritage with her love of sport, Todd came up with a brand that focusses on performance, stretch, vibrancy and durability. The clothes have a low carbon footprint, having first been produced in Portugal and now (post-Brexit) being largely made in the UK. Just head to ZAAZEE’s Instagram to see the army of fans the brand has built up over the past seven years.

  Buy now

• Feel Fit

  Founded by coach Ellie Crawford, Feel Fit specialises in “eco lux” athleisure designed to make you feel fitter, stronger and more confident. The brand has teamed up with the charity Tree Sisters to plant a tree for every purchase made, and everything is produced using a sustainable  ECONYL® regenerated nylon fibre. 

  It’s not just that this activewear is environmentally-friendly – we’ve got some of the Feel Fit kit and you’d be hard pressed to find a more silky, squat-proof pair of leggings.

NUTRITION BRANDS FOUNDED BY WOMEN

• WelleCo

  Elle Macpherson founded WelleCo back in 2014 on the back of her own personal wellness journey. The company’s ethos is all about helping women to “feel strong and alive, capable and confident”. 

  All of her products are formulated by nutritional experts and use sustainably and ethically-sourced, plant-derived ingredients that “deliver complex benefits through a simple daily routine” and are harvested in the most eco-friendly way. 

  The company even visits its ingredient farms to ensure that they each have a sustainability programme in place to support their local community. 

  Not sure which to try first? Give your bone strength a boost with The Super Booster.

  Buy now

• Nourished

  What if we said you could get your hands on personalised vitamins that taste as good as any sweet – without any of the sugar or additives? These Nourished stacks do just that; they’re delicious and they’re good for you. 

  The company was founded by Melissa Snover – a serial entrepreneur who founded her first major business at the age of 23, and has now partnered with Clearbanc (another female-founded start-up) to help them grow during the pandemic. 

  You can create your own stack or buy one of their existing options: Inner Beauty, Defence, Inner Peace, Packed & Stacked. Delicious vitamins created by women while helping other women? We’re in. 

  Buy now

• Form Nutrition

  Looking for delicious vegan protein options? How about mind-sharpening nootropics that have been creating buzz in the industry? 

  Form Nutrition, co-founded by brand director Natalia Bojanic, has been leading the charge on both fronts for a while now, with brilliant products that come in beautiful packaging. 

  With every product you purchase, you’ll help support those in need via the Form Feeding Fund at Bansang Hospital in Gambia. Form is also a Certified B Corporation, meaning that it meets the highest standards of social and environmental impact.

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• Easy Jose

  There’s nothing like a good pot of coffee before a workout for a boost of energy, but many coffees are harvested in inhumane conditions – regardless of how trendy the brewery is. For instance, in 2015, it was found that 60,000 children under the age of 14 were being forced to pick coffee in Brazil.

  Easy Jose works closely with remote indigenous communities to help them grow specialist coffee within the forest that they live – protecting their homes against destruction and ensuring that every producer is paid properly. 

  One such producer is Dalia Casancho, a key member of the Mayni community. As well as growing and foraging plants and herbs that act as natural remedies, Dalia is a coffee leader who harvests and produces her own micro-lots. Her coffee gets milled and dried with the sticky, sugary juice from the coffee cherry, giving the coffee a fantastically sweet and complex cup. 

  So if you prefer coffee over smoothies to keep you energised during your workouts, this one is for you. 

  Buy now

• Nibble

  Low-sugar, vegan-friendly and protein-packed, Nibble’s snacks are the perfect afternoon pick-me-up or post-workout treat for anyone who wants to get the most of everything they eat. 

  Erin Moroney founded the company after signing up for a marathon. She realised that while she was eating a ton of vegetables, she wasn’t getting enough protein and was suffering the consequences. 

  Keen to start eating protein bars that weren’t full of sugar, she started to make her own snacks – using antioxidant-rich dried plum puree instead of the refined sugar.

  Buy now

EXERCISE EQUIPMENT FOUNDED BY WOMEN

• WUUFLY

  There’s nothing like a beautiful, slip-free yoga mat to make you want to practice. WUUFLY’s non-slip, anti-bacterial and mold-proof mats are made in Manchester from 100% natural and recyclable materials. Even the packaging is recyclable, down to the acid-free tissue paper and CO2-neutral delivery. 

  You’ve got three types of mats to choose from: travel, studio and pro – all of which are made from biodegradable tree rubber and microfibre. The difference is in the thickness. Plus, they have very useful markers so you know exactly where your feet and hands should be when you’re in downward dog.

  Buy now

• Kettleboobs

  Kettleboobs bring a unique and quirky sense of play to strength training with their brilliantly designed kettlebells. The perfect International Women’s Day present for your mate (or yourself!).  

  Choose from Wonder Woman logos, asymmetrical breasts or GRL PWR logos. And don’t think that just because these kettlebells are fun, they’re not heavy – they go from 2kg right up to 20kg. Who said getting strong had to be boring? 

  Buy now

Follow @StrongWomenUK on Instagram for the latest workouts, delicious recipes and motivation from your favourite fitness experts.

Images: Retailers own/Instagram

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