Running Bare

Running Bare is an Australian women's activewear label founded in Sydney in 1983 by Corin and Brian Powell. For more than four decades it designed, cut and sewed its stretch garments locally, from a headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Rosebery, and it has stayed in the hands of the Powell family the whole time. In early 2026 the company announced that it was taking its online store offline from April 2026 while it rethinks the business.

That last fact explains why the brand turns up in a lingerie encyclopedia at all. Activewear sits right next to underwear in most wardrobes, and the crop top and the sports bra are where the two categories meet. Running Bare is one of the small number of Australian labels that tried to make that kind of garment at home for an entire career.

Bondi, 1983

The brand's own account of its start is short. In 1983, as the company puts it, the Powells created Running Bare "with sparkling sand under their feet and warm rays on their skin", and the label has always named Bondi Beach as its reference point. The founding date matters. The early 1980s were the years when aerobics classes and jogging turned stretch clothing into street clothing, and a lot of the first wave of fitness labels, in Australia and elsewhere, appeared in the same few years.

The name does a lot of work. Running suggests sport; bare suggests skin and summer. It is a beach-town name for a beach-town product.

A factory in Rosebery

What separates Running Bare from most of its competitors is where the clothes were made. The company's About page says that all activewear fabrics are cut on site at the Sydney headquarters, and that design, cutting, manufacturing and quality control happen in house. It describes the range as "designed, crafted, and produced locally."

That is an unusual claim for Australian clothing in the 2020s. Most local apparel production moved offshore during the 1990s and 2000s, and the majority of Australian activewear brands founded since then design in Australia and manufacture in Asia. Running Bare kept the cutting table and the sewing room in Rosebery, a suburb a few kilometers south of the Sydney city center.

Local production has practical consequences for stretch garments. A brand that cuts its own fabric can run short batches, adjust patterns quickly and check fit on the factory floor. It also carries the full cost of Australian wages and rent, which is exactly what the company later cited when it stepped back.

Fit, sizes and the family at the helm

Running Bare describes its range as women's activewear in sizes 8 to 22, with classic and petite fits. That spread is wider than many fashion-led activewear labels manage, and the petite option reflects a pattern-cutting habit more common in older, factory-based firms than in newer online brands.

The pieces are made from stretch knits of the kind used across the category, related to the jersey knit found in everyday underwear but heavier and more compressive. The brand's own copy keeps returning to fit and to construction rather than to trend.

Ownership never changed hands. According to the company, Running Bare has been "privately owned and operated by the Powell family" since 1983, with Corin Powell and her child running it in recent years. In an industry where many labels are sold to investors within a decade, that continuity is rare.

The 2026 pause

In early 2026 the company published a notice explaining that "from April 2026, our online store will go offline." It set a final sale from 9 March 2026, a returns deadline of 21 March and an expiry date for gift cards of 31 March. The reason was stated plainly: "continuing to manufacture this way has become increasingly challenging, and stepping back for now is a decision we've made."

The notice was framed as a break, not a closure. The family wrote that it was "recharging, reinventing and reimagining Running Bare" with new designs and fabrics, without giving a date for a return. The site's sign-off reads: "this isn't farewell, barely a goodbye."

Running Bare at a glance
Founded	1983, Sydney, Australia
Founders	Corin and Brian Powell
Base	Rosebery, Sydney
Production	Cut and made in house in Sydney
Sizes	8 to 22, classic and petite fits
Status	Online store offline from April 2026, relaunch promised

For a museum of underwear and the garments around it, the interesting part of the story is the factory. A sports top sewn in Sydney for 40-odd years is now a less common object than a vintage Australian bra, and the company says the economics of making it locally are what forced the pause.

Last updated October 7, 2026