How to Spot Greenwashing in Activewear

From September 2026, new EU consumer protection rules ban vague environmental claims like "eco-friendly" unless a brand can actually prove them. Until then, spotting greenwashing is on you. Here's a practical checklist, the same one we'd want applied to our own labels.

What's the difference between a vague claim and a real one?

A real claim comes with numbers. "67% Tencel™ lyocell, 33% organic cotton, 175 grams per square metre" tells you exactly what you're buying. A vague claim tells you how to feel about it instead: "eco-conscious materials," "made with care for the planet," a leaf icon with nothing underneath it.

If a brand describes its fabric only in adjectives, that's the tell. A brand with nothing to hide can usually give you the percentage breakdown, the fabric weight, and the mill it came from, on request, without a PR team getting involved.

Does a certification logo actually mean something?

Sometimes. It depends entirely on which one. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 tests the finished fabric for a defined list of harmful substances, and you can look up a specific certificate number to confirm it's real. GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) covers organic fibre content plus environmental and social criteria through the whole supply chain, also independently audited.

What isn't meaningful is a brand's own in-house "green" seal with no third party behind it. If a certification can't be verified on an independent database, it isn't really a certification. It's a sticker.

Is "recycled" automatically more sustainable?

Not necessarily, and this is where a lot of genuinely well-intentioned shoppers get misled. Recycled polyester is still plastic, and a December 2025 lab study testing garments from five major brands found it actually sheds more microplastic fibre in the wash than virgin polyester does, not less. We go into that research in detail in our full comparison of recycled polyester and organic cotton, but the short version is: recycling a plastic doesn't stop it being a plastic.

What's actually changing with EU rules in September 2026?

New EU consumer protection rules, part of a directive already adopted and set to apply from 27 September 2026, will ban generic environmental claims that can't be backed up with evidence, along with misleading "climate neutral" labels based purely on carbon offsets. It doesn't fix every greenwashing problem overnight, and enforcement will vary by country. But it's a clear signal of where the bar is heading, and it matches what careful shoppers have already been asking for.

What about "carbon neutral" or "climate neutral" labels?

Treat these with extra scepticism, and soon you won't be the only one. The new EU rules taking effect in September 2026 specifically target product-level claims of being "climate neutral" or having a "reduced carbon footprint" when those claims rest on buying carbon offsets rather than actually cutting emissions in the supply chain. Offsetting isn't inherently dishonest, but presenting it as equivalent to genuinely lower emissions is exactly the kind of claim regulators are now moving to stop.

If a brand advertises "carbon neutral" shipping or production, a fair follow-up question is whether that's achieved through offsets, through actual production changes, or some mix of both. Most won't volunteer the answer unprompted. That's usually worth noticing.

Does a higher price always mean a more sustainable product?

No. Price can reflect better materials and slower, fairer production, or it can just reflect brand markup with nothing to back it. The fibre composition, the certification, and the country of production tell you far more than the price tag does. A genuinely sustainable garment usually does cost more to make, since better fibre and slower manufacturing both cost money, but the reverse isn't guaranteed: an expensive product isn't automatically an honest one.

What should you actually ask a brand before buying?

• What's the exact fibre composition, by percentage, not just the headline material?
• What's the fabric weight, and where was it milled?
• Which certifications does it hold, and can you look up the certificate?
• If it's "recycled," recycled from what, and by whom?

A brand that won't answer at least three of those four questions clearly usually has a reason. It's a short list, and it works on any activewear brand, including us.