We ask quite a lot of a swimming costume. We want it to look great, survive adventure after adventure and we want it to feel comfortable.
Increasingly, many of us also want to understand where the things we buy come from and what material they are purchasing.
Own The Adventure started exploring those questions when we first started and we found out far more about sustainability than we realised.
It starts with the fabric
Of course, making something to last is only part of the story. We also care about what our cossies are actually made from. Our swimwear uses an Italian performance fabric made from a recycled polyamide, which is made using regenerated ECONYL® nylon, helping turn waste into a high-performance fabric designed specifically for demanding uses such as swimwear.
Choosing recycled fibres doesn't mean compromising on how your cossie performs. The fabric is designed to be stretchy, soft and breathable, with good shape retention, as well as the construction provides more than twice the resistance to chlorine, sun creams and oils compared with competitor fabrics.
That matters to us because sustainability and longevity go hand in hand. There isn't much point choosing recycled material if the finished product only lasts a season. We want to make cossies you'll wear again and again — through lake swims, sea dips, holidays and whatever slightly bonkers adventure comes next.
The fabric holds the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification. The GRS is independently verified and covers recycled content and traceability through the production process, alongside chemical, environmental and social requirements.
Buying fewer things — and loving them more
The first thing we learnt was that sustainability isn’t just about materials, it’s also about changing our relationship with clothes.
Buying something you genuinely love, wearing it repeatedly and looking after it is very different from buying something disposable because it was cheap.
We want OTA swimwear to be the costume you automatically reach for when someone messages you to “Swim tomorrow?”
This relationship means we end up buying less, wearing what we own more, and choosing things that are made to be part of our adventures for years to come
Why British-made is part of the sustainability question
Own The Adventure is proudly British, but we chose this path as we became increasingly away that producing our cossies closer to home helps us build relationships with the people involved in making our swimwear and make more considered decisions about how our products are produced.
We’re a small independent brand, which means every order genuinely matters, you’re not simply buying another swimming costume. You’re supporting the people and businesses involved in creating it.
Our English based factory reach out to schools where kids are struggling to offer them a trade. They are a small independent family firm who are experts in stretch material. They care about OTA and they care about your costumes which is why each one is part of the sustainability question of buying quality and therefore less product.
So when we talk about making more sustainable choices, we don't mean pretending that producing new swimwear has no environmental impact. It means making considered choices about the materials we use, where we manufacture, how long our products last — and encouraging you to buy something you genuinely love enough to wear for years.
Made for swimming. Made for adventure. Made to be worn.