Note: elephantjournal.com received these review items for free, in return for a guarantee that we would review said offering. That said, we say what we want—good and bad, happy and sad.

 

I am not a firm believer in love at first sight. Some love takes a little finessing, a little incubation period, a little overcoming of first impressions. (No, you did not open the wrong article. Yes, this is about yoga pants.)

So it was with BaliniSports.

Bright colors frighten me a little bit. So does the idea of participating any sort of physical fitness with my stomach showing.

And yet, here I am in their orange, purple and black pants with a purple sports bra and orange mesh sort-of top, post home yoga practice.

And I couldn’t be more content.

How did I overcome these fears, you ask? Simple: these clothes are made of the softest, most breathable, potentially stitched-in-magic material my skin has ever had the pleasure of feeling.

That probably sounds like an exaggeration. It’s not.

Through an entire practice, these colorful garments moved with me through every leg-swing into lunge and every upstretched-arm Tadasana. The tiny T-back of the sports bra and the mostly open back of the mesh top kept me nice and cool, and the top was actually far less scandalous (and far more flattering) than I originally thought.

The pants have a section of mesh going up the leg, so they won’t get sticky or hot during a particularly vigorous flow. I did have to pull up the waist a few times, but that could have been a sizing issue, and the rest of the pant made up for it in their dreamy, I-could-sleep-in-these level of comfort (still not exaggerating).

All of their clothing could easily work for running or biking or other non-yogic forms of exercise too, which I love. Best-practice when you find good clothes is to wear them as frequently and in as many different situations as possible…right?

BaliniSports is also bluesign certified, which means that in every step of the production process, they are using the best available technology in order to make these clothes as ecologically friendly as possible. They are made in the U.S.A. They use non-toxic dyes. They also only use about 1/3 of the water that it normally takes to produce clothing—one pair of leggings, on average, takes anywhere from 1,000-1,800 gallons of water (seriously), most of which is unrecyclable, but Balini leggings only use 300-500 gallons, and 80% of what’s used is recyclable. (Side note: the amount of water we use to make stuff is insane. And depressing. It’s insanely depressing. Check out some numbers here, and decide if that artisanal cheese is really worth it.) Two thumbs up on all of that.

Alas, all magic has a dark side. The pants and the top are both made of polyester, mesh and spandex. Great for moisture wicking, as soft and stretchy as you could ever want, but even a bluesign certification can’t make them biodegradable, and definitely can’t make them organic.

At the end of the day, the strides Balini takes to make their production process as eco as possible outweighs their use of not-so-eco fabrics.

Their clothes are perfect for staying cool while breaking a sweat, and they are certainly not for lack of style.

They’ll make you step out of your comfort zone and into a cloak of meshy-colorful goodness—and, if you’re anything like me, you might just fall in love.

 

 

Author: Emily Bartran

Photo: Author’s Own