Is Athletic Apparel Retailer Alo Yoga Considered Fast Fashion? Here’s What We Know

You’ve got your sights set on a healthier, happier you, preparing to attend your first yoga class in a fresh new outfit from athletic apparel retailer Alo Yoga. You’re also eco-minded and trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

As you look around at a class full of yogis in fast fashion apparel, the dreadful thought arises: are my new clothes from Alo Yoga considered fast fashion?

Before you work up a sweat heavier than the one you endured in your Bikram Yoga class, let’s explore if Alo Yoga is indeed considered fast fashion, what the retailer is doing right, and how they can improve.

The sustainable fashion rating app Good On You declares Alo Yoga as famous as Lululemon. Unfortunately, the app also declares Alo a fast fashion retailer they recommend avoiding.

Good on You rates Alo Yoga “Very Poor” for its environmental impact, “Not Good Enough” in its lack of effort to protect workers within their supply chain, and “Not Good Enough” in the animal welfare category, as Alo Yoga appallingly “still uses leather, down, exotic animal hair, and wool” in its apparel line.

Good on You goes a step further, taking Alo Yoga to task for not embodying the sacred tenet of “do no harm” that yogis seek to follow. Alo Yoga violates this core belief by using animals for its goods, lacking adequate labor protections for workers, and relying on hazardous chemicals and toxic emissions throughout the production process.