I’m sure there’s a lot of outraged faces out there right now! I’m hearing people yelling “WTF Claire?! All fat people hate exercise?? I’m fat and I love to work out! I agree with you of course! I’m fat and I have been known to work out regularly. Sometimes admittedly I got sidetracked by illness, depression or flat out laziness but in general, I exercise fairly often. Please note though that I am not saying this is a requirement for body acceptance and self love. If you don’t want to work out that is fine! No pressure. Also remember if you don’t choose to exercise it does not affect what you get to eat. You are awesome and beautiful and worthy regardless of how much you exercise or what you eat!

You’d never believe fat people like to work out though if you take a look at a lot of the activewear brands out there. I get a fair number of different brands popping up on my social media feeds. Some looking for influencers and some just general ads with links to their shops. I am interested in having a good range of workout clothes that are comfy, practical but also as cute as hell so I click them.

Unfortunately what I frequently find is no big sizes whatsoever. It makes me angry because they’re excluding a whole group of people as if larger people don’t deserve to have nice clothes to workout in. I’m happy to say that in general the fashion industry is improving and we bigger people now have a lot more choices but the activewear section still has a fair way to go. I wanted to see how bad it was so I did some research so you don’t have to! You’re welcome 😄

Sweaty Betty

Let’s start with a big one. Sweaty Betty. According to their website “Founded in 1998, Sweaty Betty has been shaking up the activewear market for over 20 years. Designed by women for women, our goal is to make you feel powerful and amazing from studio to street with the best fit and fabric.” Nice goal! Not all women though! Sweaty Betty’s sizes range from XXS to XXL. This sounds pretty good til you check the size chart and realise XXL is UK size 18. As I’m a size 22-24 and I know there are plenty of bigger ladies than me out there that seems a pretty poor showing. Add to that the fact that a single pair of leggings starts at £65 I certainly wouldn’t say this range is intended for all women. Thin, well off ones seems a lot more likely.

Under Armour

Under Armour caters for men and women and at first glance seems to have a reasonable range of sizes going up to 24-26. In practice though, many of the leggings and tops that I liked and looked at only went up to around a size 18. Size 18 is called XL. I would maintain that 18 should be large at most but that’s an issue for another day. Leggings start at £30 and tops around £20 I will say the sizing and price are more reasonable than Sweaty Betty.

Astoria Activewear

This one pops up frequently on my Instagram feed. They have 344,000 followers and are actively looking for brand ambassadors. Their recruitment message says “Our team representative program is built to provide support, build brand awareness, and spread body positivity.” This sounds great until you look at their size chart. They go up to XL apparently but this is UK size 14-16!! Seriously what the actual fuck?? In their world 14-16 is considered extra large and we’re supposed to think they’re body positive? Do us a favour! These guys really do appear to believe fat people hate exercise. Similar to Sweaty Betty they’re expensive with leggings costing around £50 and t-shirts a minimum of £35. Too rich for my blood and another company who appears to think fat people don’t deserve nice workout clothes. Grrrrrr!

Bamboo Clothing

This is an ethical brand with a focus on the environment. By making clothes out of bamboo “Bamboo absorbs five times more carbon than hardwood trees. It needs half the land cotton needs to produce the same amount of fibre and it doesn’t need irrigation or pesticides.” sounds like a good mission. They are also working toward a zero carbon footprint. All very laudable. Sadly this is another one that only goes up to size 18 🙁 Leggings are around £40 so they’re midway between Astoria and Under Armour. They care about the planet but not us larger peeps.

Missletics

This is another one who popped up on my Instagram feed. Their clothes are pretty funky, with nice colours and styles. They go up to XL but only show measurements rather than equivalent sizes. I compared it to Asda and Simply Be and found it’s a size 18. From experience size 18 is the size a lot of clothes shops go up to as well.m It seems this is as far as they’re willing to go to be able to say “look, we cater for larger sizes too” This is such a shame as of all the brands I looked at I liked Missletics’ stuff the best. It was reasonably priced at around $30 for leggings or a sports bra and I think I might have placed an order. They don’t appear to want my business though 🙁

My Conclusions

So there you have it. Five brands, all reasonably large, who appear to have no interest in being inclusive in their sizing. I’m pretty sure this is just the tip of the iceberg too as there’s no way I could research every activewear brand out there. I just went with ones that pop up regularly in my social media feeds. It seems crazy that society as a whole loves to tell fat people to exercise but when we want to we struggle to find anything comfortable and attractive to do it in! It is a myth that fat people hate exercise, are lazy and never work out. I work out more than many thin people I know. We need brands to acknowledge our existence and dump these stereotypes.

I do know that not all brands refuse to cater to large sizes. Nike, the largest sportswear brand in the world, has a plus-size range going up to size 32. Its normal range goes up to size 24. This is great. There’s also Fabletics, Asda, Simply Be and SHEIN Curve so we do have some choices. I believe strongly though that all brands should be size inclusive. It’s not acceptable in the world we live in, with the range of body types and sizes that we have to not do this. The time of larger people being made to feel like freaks and pariahs must come to an end. We’re here, we’re not going anywhere so let us buy your clothes! Believe me, if you make them in our size we will rock them!