About CBF

It started as a joke. I would go and see my Personal Trainer, and she would ask me how I'm going.  "Can't be fucked, but I'm here so let's do this". Oh, she would make me pay for my apathy, but it was always worth it.  Those endorphines would kick in and I could take on the world again.

Sports and fitness is sometimes just so serious and it's hard work. You go to the gym or the sports store and see all the motivational tag lines on the workout clothing; tags telling you to do this, you should be that, go harder, be faster, get stronger. Yet most of us aren’t elite athletes, and don’t particularly aspire to be.  We just want to take better care of ourselves.  

At first I felt great... and everyone was telling me how great I looked. I was encouraged to become a personal trainer.  I started doing bootcamps at 6am in addition to the classes, and got my own personal trainer.  I also started running.  All on top of working full time. 

Slowly but surely all that hard work took it's toll. I hardly saw my son, I was exhausted all the time and I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be. But I had lost over 30kgs, so why wasn't I happy? I was in burnout. Physically and emotionally exhausted. Hey, but I looked great, right?Society has conditioned to believe that being skinny, the six pack abs, or the tight booty, is the picture of health and desire, and I have wasted so much time and energy trying to achieve that. Countless diets, exercise plans, and money spent on treatments, programs and equipment. 

I have been the fat girl, then the skinny girl, then the fat girl again.

These days I have come to accept I will never be "the perfect 10" (whatever that means). But there are still some residual hang ups and assumptions that I haven’t yet mastered. Healthy Eating and exercise still has an important role to play in my life, but now I use it to assist with my mental and physical health, and I steer away from a number on the scales. I try to focus on how I feel and my physical health, not how I look.

I was born to be a Rebel. With CBF I want to challenge these things we have accepted as what we "should" be, what we "have" to do. Your size shouldn't matter, but your health does. What you bring to the world, and how you choose to present yourself, is what truly matters. I'm choosing to enjoy my life, to live it to it's absolute best and to try and make a difference. I can enjoy my life AND be fit and healthy... and so can you. I want to inspire others to find their own fit, tread their own path, and enjoy self care and self worth as well as health and fitness.

I just like bunnies, ok?  

Seriously though, I kind of liked the concept of having a nemesis to a very famous battery brand Bunny. You know, the one in the ads that is always on the go, never stops, happy, focused, driven.  That battery bunny is a good analogy of the fitness industry, always reinforcing the message of being highly motivated, athletic, don't stop, won't stop. Just do it. 

My bunny loves a good workout just like the rest of us, but also just wants to stick his middle finger up at the Go Go Bunny and tell him to calm his farm occasionally. Just relax, have a day off, take the pressure of...

You feeling the CBF bunny vibes now?

I love our logo.  It's a great conversation piece.  Some people also see a bear, or they ask whether it's a bunny face or a bunny butt.  Some people even see a human butt in there (go on... squint).  I just think it looks great on our activewear.

The language around sizing is really challenging sometimes.  When in those changing rooms, do you blame the sizing of the clothes or do you go straight to blaming yourself and your size?  It can be tricky to change the thought pattern from “I was the problem” to “that clothing isn’t right for me”. 

Obviously, we have to use something. It is just a way of finding your fit. It doesn’t matter how many XXXXX are in front of your S or L, as long as you feel great in what you wear.

Once again when it came to finding inclusive sizing, we struggled to find gym wear and sports clothes suppliers or manufacturers who catered for the bigger, more luscious form. We still have a way to go, and as our business grows we will continue to focus on ensuring that our workout clothing caters for everyone, no matter your size or shape.  We hope that with our current collaborations and collections you can find something that caters to your required function and size, but if we don't, please let us know. We will do our best to change that.

Our brand mission is in the next 3 years to have a full collection of activewear in a MINIMUM size range for XS to 5XL, with options for larger sizing in our basics range.  We do need your support to achieve this, so let us know what you need.

We are conscious of working with manufacturers, suppliers and collaborators who support our values.  We do our best to assure that our products are ethically made, aim to reduce our impact on the environment, and promote fair and healthy conditions. Where possible we are utilising recycled or recyclable packaging, and are actively encouraging our supply chain to do the same. We hope to continue to do more in the future as we improve our processes and products.

Globally, 87% of all disposed textiles are sent to landfill or incinerated; 12% is mechanically recycled by cutting it or shredding it into fibre, insulation material or rags; and less than 1% is chemically recycled back to reusable raw materials.

A 2019 Pulse Of The Fashion Industry report stated that fashion generates 4% of the world’s waste each year, 92 million tons, which is more than toxic e-waste. A lot of that comes from off-cuts from the production process.

CBF Clothing aims to minimise excess stock and avoid over production for our activewear. Currently we print on demand all our tees, singlets, sweatshirts and hoodies, which is why sometimes our purchases take a little longer to arrive in the post. We believe we are worth the wait, to avoid the waste. Other products are stocked in low quantities, so if we are sold out, feel free to contact us and we can give you an ETA for re-stock and email when your products come in.