Last week, we released new organic cotton sportswear that’s perfect for those that love sport and those who have other thoughts.
“I hate running,” said one of our friends on a group chat recently.
We’ve got him covered. Our sportswear plays at both ends of the pitch. You can grab high performance kit for your next big 2026 challenge, or you can pick up organic cotton alternatives for lower-intensity workouts like pilates or for giving you new levels of comfort when you’re out for your 11am coffee.
Basically you can go big or go to brunch.
CHECK IT OUT
Do you relate to our friend’s hatred of running?
Maybe you’re still scarred from school sports memories. Of being forced out on the school sports field in January.
Memories of your fingers getting so cold they lost all feeling, then felt like a bee sting when you finally stepped back indoors, coated in mud and irritation, wondering why all the paint-peeled radiators burned you if you touched them but still seemed to give off no real heat.
If so, we should introduce you to Keval.
At Yes Friends, Keval is affectionately known as Mr. Finance. He stops us from making dumb decisions with orders, and he also treats us to witticisms and first-hand accounts of watching live sumo-wrestling.
Keval understands. Back in school, he hated running.
If any cross-country related activity appeared on his timetable, he’d do everything he could to get out of it.
In adulthood, he grew a bit restless, and felt a bit of pressure to ‘stay fit’.
So he tried running again. And he stopped. And then he tried running again. Then he stopped.
At least a couple of us in the Yes Friends office have gone through the same experience. We tried that trick where you run real slow – almost a jog-walk – to get used to the feeling. That didn’t work.
We even downloaded the ZombiesRun! app so we could pop on headphones and simulate the experience of being chased down by flesh-eating monsters.
But it turns out even a zombie apocalypse couldn’t even keep us running.
With Keval, though. It was different.
After giving up running a few times, he started eyeing up the Paris Marathon.
It was a big, bold idea – so far outside his comfort zone and what his circle of friends typically did. It wasn’t exactly dipping his toes back into the jogging waters – it was going big or going home.
“Ah shoot, let’s just go for it.” he thought.
He was living in Lisbon – a city of trams, balconies, and merchants carrying baskets of fish on their heads.
Keval’s running routes originally started at his house, but Lisbon is also literally known as ‘the City of Seven Hills’ and Keval’s house was right among the steep slopes.
Keval soon gave up. But this time he only gave up on the hills
He hitched a train to Rio Tejo, the shore of the estuary-river and crucially the flattest part of the city… and he began running.
And he actually liked it.
Out here the river air mixes with a bit of sea breeze and occasionally a waft of grilled sardines from a nearby tasca. And when you run along the promenade, you’re dodging between skaters, e-scooters and seagulls. But it’s flat. So gloriously flat.
This soon became Keval’s routine – following the trail of the water, the red Vasco da Gama bridge stretching for what looks like miles across it.
And the more he trained for Paris, the more he got into the zone. Eventually he was running from Cais de Sodre in downtown Lisbon to Cascais on the coast – about 21 miles.
He ran the Paris Marathon in 2019. And it wasn’t his last.
He’d gone after something real big, and now running was part of his world.
This thing we’re launching – it’s got some scrappy trial-run energy now. It feels like we’ve just taken the train to Rio Tejo, the flattest part of Lisbon – wearing our first six products and with a whole lot of road ahead of us.
But just like Keval’s Paris dreams, YF. Sport is fuelled by a big vision: ethical can be affordable in the sportswear industry.
And one day this might just be part of everyone’s world: Sustainable sportswear, with good wages for garment workers.
You’re part of this big and reckless attempt to transform the sportswear industry.
And along the way, you can get yourself some high performance and organic cotton sportswear – whether you’re training for gold in LA, or jog-walking between skaters, e-scooters and seagulls.
“I really like the soft, buttery feel.” - Jacqueline E, Training Leggings
“Used it at Pilates last week… stretched in all the right places.” – Matt H, Training T-shirt
RUN WITH US
