Functional, stylish workout gear from Old Navy
When you look at the workout pants/shorts area of my closet, you’ll see a common theme: black stretchy.
I wear lots and lots of black stretchy pants.
For Zumba, I’ll clown it up with as many neon color combos and patterns as I can find (if it has the Zumba logo on it, it matches, yes?) but for everything else, you can usually find me wearing black bottoms. I like black because it matches everything and hides sweat well, which is important when you’re teaching and all eyes are on you.
So when Old Navy offered a $50 gift card to try out their Active by Old Navy line, I jumped at the chance to try out some new gear and had one mission: colored bottoms.
First of all, I think I’ve been living under a rock because I had no idea Old Navy had such an incredible line of active gear.
Zip-ups, compression, yoga, sports bras, running shorts, lightweight sneaks- I was blown away by the variety, along with the low prices.
$8 sports bras?! I was tempted to buy 6 and call it a day.
Instead, I browsed around for a little while
and found 9 pieces to try on, including a gorgeous black and white striped dress that was $19.
One thing I noticed straight away was the quality of the fabrics. For the prices, I was half-expecting them to be flimsy and poorly-constructed, but instead, they were made from lush fabrics with intricate detail. I’m a pretty tough critic when it comes to workout clothes -I wear it so often to teach- and was instantly impressed. Another happy surprise? The pieces were true to size, which made the fitting process much easier.
The goods:
Compression capris in retro violet
Striped bubble active tank in black
Compression jacket in retro violet
2 molded high-impact sports bras (couldn’t find the link online)
The total:
5 pieces for $72! I also got the striped dress in a separate transaction- can’t wait to wear it.
Of course, I had to take out some of my new gear for a spin:
(25 minutes on the treadmill, some planks and squats)
The verdict?
LOVED.
The molded sports bra kept everything in place during cardio and sweat showing (which is my main complaint with colored pants) wasn’t a prob at all. I even did the “water test” and splashed a little water on my leg to see how the crops would do during an intense teaching class, and the water quickly absorbed into the material and dried. I also like the smooth waistband of the pants and hidden pocket, which is perfect for a yoga class. I did notice that the fabric on these is extremely thick, so I wouldn’t recommend them for running (I prefer lighter fabrics with mesh ventilation behind the knees), but they are great for strength, cardio and yoga.
As far as the tank goes, I can tell it’s going to get a lot of use, and at the price ($10!) I may have to get a couple of different colors. The fabric is extremely thin and light -perfect for Tucson summers- and even has cute cutout detail in the back.
You can check out the entire line here- it’s up to 40% off until the 16th! Also, Old Navy offers free shipping on orders over $50.
Have you tried the Old Navy Active Line? If so, what’s your fave? Do you wear colored workout bottoms or notsomuch?
Hope you have a very happy Friday!
xoxo
Gina
This post is sponsored by Old Navy and as always, all opinions and reviews are my own. Check out their active line in stores or at oldnavy.com #GetYourActiveON
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I LOVE this line!! I am wearing a pair of the compression capris right now – about to go on my morning run.
That tank is very cute, I may need it 😉
I love their gear! I just ordered a bunch more yesterday and can’t wait to get it! My favorite piece is the tie bubble tank (it was only $10!)!
Kim
Who knew?! I guess I know where to go for some affordable, nice workout stuff!
I bought a pair of old navy compression running tights for $20 and I l.o.v.e them. They have a reflective stripe up the side and zippers at the ankle. The back of the knees is breathable mesh. They have a drawstring at the waist so they don’t slip down. I checked out the other workout gear the other day and I felt like it was very high quality, better than some of the high end workout gear being sold at other stores.
I love Old Navy’s workout gear! I’ve yet to find the ability to shell out $80 for a pair of yoga pants, but I’ve found that Old Navy’s active wear holds up about as well as mid-level clothing purchased elsewear. Hard to complain about an $8 sports bra that can hold it’s own against a $48 competitor’s!
the sports bras are AMAZING for the price. i couldn’t believe it!
I only have black workout bottoms, but I’m thinking it’s time to spice it up a little – those are cute! And I have tried the Old Navy Active line, I have several tops and sports bras.
Ha! Your Old Navy shopping spree was MY Old Navy shopping spree last week, including the work out gear and the black and white striped dress!
I’m in love with these black/fuchsia cropped pants I got there. Super flattering and functional.
My boyfriend got me a pair of their compression capris for xmas and i loved them so much I went and bought more and their tshirt quick dry tops are awesome!
I love love love the Old Navy line! That’s all I wear! It’s affordable, looks great, and is great quality.
I’ve been seeing Old Navy activewear ALL over the blog world and it looks so awesome! I have primarily black stretchy bottoms as well and would love some fun colors to switch it up.
I’ve been wearing the bubble tank (in it’s different incarnations) for a few years now to run – on the treadmill and through nasty humid Boston summers and have recomended it to SO MANY friends! Those were the first piece of workout clothing I bought and instantly fell in love with – I have a whole rainbow of colors. 🙂
I just recently discovered this too through Peanut Butter Fingers’ blog post! I am totally needing to make a trip to Old Navy like YESTERDAY! Good quality workout gear from Old Navy!? Who knew!?!?!?!? Well, apparently everyone but us. 😉
right?! we’ve been missing out!
I love Old Navy SO much!!! Great, quality pieces for so much cheaper than other places. I have an ON credit card and get so much extra savings, too- in addition to their constant sales and other fabulous offers. Seriously, about 90% of my wardrobe is Old Navy, including my work out gear. Simply cannot beat it!
Very cute stuff! I’m more of an ON (rather than a LuLu) kinda girl anyway. Thanks for the detailed review!
LOVE Old Navy Active! All of my workout clothes are ON. I have sports bras, 2 pair of capri compression pants, and 3 running shorts. I would like to get a few long sleeve, and long compression pants since we’re moving to Korea and it is mighty cold there in the winter.
I bought the same purple jacket and that tank in (again) purple. Love their line!
That top is totally cute! I usually stick to black on the bottom as well, except when it comes to running shorts, I bought a bunch of neon ones last spring and can’t wait to pull them back out in a few months!
You look super cute! Can’t wait till I am small enough to feel comfortable to wear these cute outfits myself.
Love your blog. Hugs, Bobbi Jo
Whoa. Nice. I had no idea they had all that active wear.
Cute outfit – looks really good on you.
This is NOT directed at you specifically, but it seems like all the top bloggers are posting ON clothing reports…it just feels like we’re (readers) are trying to be brainwashed sometimes. Their marketing is definitely targeted! It makes me less inclined to want to try their stuff honestly :/
yeah it was part of a group campaign. even if i weren’t a part of it, i’d definitely want to try it out after seeing everyone’s reviews. i didn’t even know it existed! 🙂
Just before Christmas I bought blue compression capris from Old Navy but have yet to test them out. I was dying for some bottoms that were not my usual black too!
Wow! Is didn’t know that Old Navy had such a good selection….Im going to head there this weekend.
I had no idea Old Navy had workout clothes either! So good to know. I love the pieces you picked out and will definitely be making a trip there soon!
I love ON workout gear. It was been a staple for years and lasts. Workout pants that I bought maybe 5 or 6 years ago finally got a little tear on the seam – but I was totally impressed that they lasted that long and the color hasn’t faded! I love the cheap sports bras too – they are great.
I just bought some of the compression capris on Monday when I went to return something, and I’m totally loving them for strength. I also bough one of the bras, and It fits really well and keeps the girls in check in my circuit training. I might just have to go back and get one of those tanks though. It’s so cute!
I also got an Old Navy certificate through a different program, and LOVE the jacket!! I selected purple and black… now after reading your post I am thinking about changing the pants I got to colored capris- I too am stuck in a black rut- purple maybe?
Before I discovered Nike Tempo shorts (and apparently lived under a rock) I always wore the old navy running shorts. They lasted forever. Now I have a few tops from there. I am coveting that top you got now. I always buy black caparison and tights, but my tempo shorts are always bright. As are my shirts.
Oops… capris and tights. Silly tablet.
I love Old Navy’s workout line! I tend to gravitate to them when I am in need of some inexpensive new gear at the beginning of each new season!
Love the picks you made! I love Old Navy’s activewear. Their stretchy capris are my favorite to work out in! They stay in place and they’re comfortable.
I did not know that Old Navy had an Athletic line until everyone started posting about it! It looks cute, and boy are those prices CHEAP. I might have to take a look, sometimes I am skeptic to buy from a store I don’t usually shop at though.
Awesome stuff! I actually bought maternity tops there last week and love!
Can you tell us how the sizing runs? I’d like to order that jacket and it’s only online. I’m a 36DD. And the pants?
i got a small in the jacket (34C) and an extra small in the pants. i would have liked a small in the pants but they didn’t have any. the sizing runs pretty true to size
I just went there to get some long sleeved thermals and was surprised as well by their athletic line. My mother is a seamstress so the first things I look for are the quality of the fabric and the stitching. I have do say that it is impressive, especially for the price. Their compression pants are wonderful and work really well for CrossFit.
I can’t wear colored workout pants though! I am a black bottoms/colored top kind of gal. I’ve got quite a booty so I don’t need to call any more attention there! The last thing people need to see is a huge purple butt running around Pasadena. 😛
I love their Active line! I just ordered a pair of compression capris, wide leg yoga capris, 2 pairs of running shorts and some Go Dry tees last week. I love it all! I’m usually a medium top and I’m between sizes on the bottom (S/M), and I found that the medium tops were perfect, but I had to err on the small side for the bottoms – the shorts in particular were too bulky in medium. Just throwing that out there for people, like me, who have to guess between sizes!
I get pretty sweaty when I exercise, so I stick with black/navy/charcoal leggings, but I’ll rock a pair of neon running shorts any day since they’re a little more forgiving!
I usually wear black but I want to get some colored ones. Ive heard a lot about old navys activewear lately. I need to check it out!
I love the picks you got! I wear shiny colors on top but black pants all the time 🙂
You look gorgeous by the way.
I have a few older things from Old Navy’s active wear – it may be Old Navy, but they work just fine.
The funny thing – I have yoga pants from LuLuLemon, Old Navy and Costco. You know which ones feel the most cheap – LULU. I find that amusing (and disappointing). This isn’t true for all of LuLu -but just for this one pair of yoga pants.
I have one pair of blue bottoms and two pairs of coloured shorts- all the rest are black.
I really want to try some colored crops for the gym and yoga, too! Mine are all black, though my running shorts are all colored (thanks, Nike). I also have an Old Navy sports bra from a million years ago, and I love it — it still fits great and hasn’t lost its oomph!
Random question, but who takes the shots of you in the gym? Random gym goers?
About halfway through this post I kept thinking “this doesn’t sound much like Gina, it sounds like an ad, but I thought Gina didn’t do that kind of stuff on this blog” and then I saw that it was a sponsored post at the bottom. Kind of sad to see that. A lot of my favorite bloggers have been going through the sponsored post thing lately and inevitably become super commercial, like a magazine full of more ads than articles, and I hope that doesn’t happen to this blog because it’s one of the last major fitness blogs I can still read. Just my .02. I really enjoy your writing most of the time, but this doesn’t even sound like it was written by you.
I’ve tried ON workout clothes and was unimpressed, personally. Very low-quality materials that fell apart quickly and the fit didn’t work on my slightly-tall frame. I prefer to go to TJ Maxx/Marshalls or Target for cheap workout clothes.
I’m just curious, really, but what is wrong with Gina accepting a gift card in order to purchase items and give them an honest review? If she did not like them she would say so. How is this wrong?
Anyhow, I bought many of these items before I saw any of the blogger reviews and I have to agree with Gina, I LOVE their workout line! 🙂
Perhaps it’s simply a difference in what we’re assuming a sponsored review means. I assume that a “sponsored review” means someone was paid to say nice things about the line, above and beyond being sent a gift card. A sponsored post is, by definition, not an honest review. An honest review is someone’s un-edited, un-influenced opinion, containing both good and bad points as well as general useful information. But companies don’t sponsor you to write truthful things about their products, they don’t want your real opinion out there, they just want you to write what they’d otherwise have to put in an advertisement.
We all know bloggers like this are out to make money and sell product, so that’s not my issue. Personally, I’d just rather see banner advertisements or affiliate links than waste my time reading what appears to be a genuine review and realize halfway through that it’s actually just an ad for the company. Just my .02. Like I said, I generally really enjoy Gina’s writing and the blog in general, otherwise I’d just unsubscribe and not bother chiming in at all.
sponsored posts are not a major blog moneymaker for me- there was one sponsored post in the past year, for blue diamond almonds (the only brand of almond milk i’ll buy, since it’s non-gmo). i get multiple product review and sponsored posts offers each day and turn almost all of it down, because it’s all crap. for any of the good product review offers, i ask if i can do a giveaway for my readers instead of keeping the product myself. most of the reviews i post are for products i purchased (example: all of the beach body dvds i’ve tried, my heart rate monitor).
a sponsored review means that you were paid to write a post for a company. legally, they cannot tell you what to write and if someone tried to get me to brainwash or swindle my readers, i would cease to do business with them, no matter what company it was. that’s not how i roll, nor have i previously rolled in the past. for this particular post, we received the gift card, a small stipend and were just asked to post a picture of ourselves in the gear, include the link, hashtag and last bold portion (disclaimer) of the post.
companies ask bloggers to promote product because they’re real people- trusted individuals instead of a logo on a page. when they ask bloggers to review products, they’re taking a gamble because the reviews will be honest. in this case, i really liked the product and was happy to help share the word.
there will be one more old navy post coming up next week, but i’ll be sure to include the disclaimer at the top if you’d rather skip it. product reviews and sponsored posts are an extreme rarity over here, and always have been. at the same time, my blog helps me support my family.
Thanks for the honest reply, I appreciate that you’re forthcoming about this. Personally, I really like it when bloggers post the disclaimer for sponsored posts at the top so that I can choose to skip or at least know that this is a paid review while I’m reading. That makes it seem more honest to me, versus reading through something that appears to be a legit review and realizing at the bottom that it was paid for. Because regardless of whether they can legally tell you to write positive things, I think most of us realize that sponsored reviews are highly unlikely to be negative – if anything, because you’re more likely to think positively of something you are paid to write about. So in that sense I still don’t think they’re the same as your non-paid reviews, which read as much more honest and usually contain much more useful information including both positives and negatives of the products. This reads much more like an advertisement or an infomercial than a review.
Again, thanks for posting honestly about this and even though my feedback is critical, I hope it doesn’t come off as meanspirited. I only want to address something that has caused me to stop reading other blogs in the past, because I’d be really sad if the same thing happened with your blog which happens to be one of my favorites 🙂
i didn’t think it was meanspirited at all and was happy to answer your questions.
My two favorite running shorts are Old Navy, I bought them years ago! I swear they’re identical to the Nike Tempos that everyone loves.
Last season I bought fold over grey/purple compression shorts from Old Navy that are perfect as well!
Good to know about the shorts! I love Nike running shorts, but they can be pricey.
Yes I love their active wear, easy to move in and great for Pilates and Barre work.
I love Old Navy’s active wear! The quality is good and the price is great! Plus their sports bras are the only ones I’ve found where everything “stays in place” and they’re super comfy.
Im so excited! I have been getting a bit frustrated in the workout clothes department. Thinking that target would have some reasonably priced items…NOT. So, I am super excited to go to Old Navy and try it out!
It is so surprising to read from you and other bloggers how great this line is, I used to buy ON clothes but found their sizing was so hit and miss and quality was terrible. It will be nice if you do a follow up in a few months to see if the clothes are holding up well. What you got is so cute and affordable, if it holds hold, I might be more tempted!
LOVE your purple capris.
I’m sure I’m echoing whats already been said but I’m in awe Old Navy has made quality work out clothes. I’ve completely written the store off as ‘cheap’ until I saw Pbfinger’s and Carrots n’ Cake’s similar product demo/reviews. Regardless of who’s reviewing it, the product seems to speak for itself. I’m heading to Old Navy!
ps. Thank you so much for trying out the gear for us! I’m sure its a mixed blessing to do product reviews but I really appreciate you taking the time (and gamble) to do them!
i may have to give the active line another shot. i bought a pair of ON charcoal compression capris last year and fell in love with them, but within a month or two of gentle use they developed little holes in the seams and in the knees, so now they are just bum-around-the-house pants. but maybe i just got a bad pair. although i have had many quality problems with old navy clothing in the past.
i do have to agree with some commenters that this post reads like an ad and not like “gina.” but at the same time, i know blogging is a business, and i wouldn’t turn down a gift card, either. everything in moderation, i suppose
I just bought both of those striped dresses last weekend. I wore the red and blue one to work this week, and got tons of compliments. They are so cute!
OK, so waaay off topic but look at this site. I bought it at a local food store today in Charlottesville Va and thought of you instantly. I bet yours are 10 times better, but thought the flavors and ingredients were awesome!
http://mycocoroons.com
I like their stuff! It doesn’t last quite as long as lulu stuff but you could prolly get four replacement pairs for cheaper than 1 pair at lulu 🙂 I can only wear black yoga clothes….don’t know why!