There are companies that barely affect our world, those that make it a worse place and those that want to make it a better place. Wonda Swim is one of the latter, producing swim and sportswear that is timeless, high quality, and sustainable at the forefront of circular fashion.
Spring is just around the corner, the world is facing the potential ease of corona restrictions and yoga and fitness studios are about to open. Let’s imagine doing an open-air sports class under the Portuguese sun in a Lisbon park. Yoga, fitness, the main thing is finally sport, friends and sun again.
A nice feeling that the two founders Kim Flint and Teresa Brouwers also had in Lisbon. Not in a park but on the beach, surfing, a few years earlier. And as is the case in the sea nowadays, there was also rubbish floating around next to the two surfers as well as old fishing nets on the beach. In addition, both of them were not completely satisfied with their swimwear, so they decided to create a solution out of both problems: Swimwear made from recycled marine plastic.
Founded in 2019, the brand’s confident vision is simple. To offer a perfect fit for every body type, thus creating self-confidence and additionally improving the world. All products are handmade from recycled plastic in Lisbon. No trends, no injustice, no compromise. Instead, “a symbol for the power of honesty, true relationship, and empathy, portrayed in timeless and high-quality fashion products, co-created by our community and always with people and our planet in mind”, as the brand writes on its homepage.
Wonda focuses on women’s fashion in a wide variety of forms. Because before they were founded, they were able to define nine different female body types through research – both up and down. This is how the Fitting Advice came into being, with questions ranging from common sizes to breast shape. This is how the ideal bikini is found. This not only leads to a happier shopping experience, but also to fewer CO2 emissions. After all, the environmental pollution caused by returns in Germany alone is equivalent to 2200 car journeys from Hamburg to Moscow. For that reason Wonda created the Fitting Advice which helps customers make the right choice in advance.
Spring is just around the corner and it’s not just time for bikinis. It’s fitting that Wonda also has leggings and sports bras in its portfolio – if warm days are still a while off.
The Amanda sports bra, for example, has a particularly wide chest band for maximum support and is still extremely flexible thanks to the well thought-out cut. Like most Wonda products, it is 100 percent made in Europe and consists of 78 percent recycled ocean and landfill plastic waste, which means it has a 90 percent lower environmental impact than conventional nylon products. On top of that, all products are made skin-friendly and comply with the Oeko-Tex 100 standard.
The Tokyo leggings have slightly different values, but are also made from renewable materials – the castor bean oil. Thus, the pants have no impact on any human or animal food chain, are completely energy- and water-efficient and have a significantly lower carbon footprint than comparable polyamide-containing products – 25 percent less to be exact. In addition, the leggings are 100% compliant with the Neko-Text 100 standard – meaning they contain no harmful substances. Thanks to their timeless design, they can be worn not only for H.I.T workouts (yes, they have even been tested for that) but also in everyday life without any problems. The high-rise waistband is for great shape support and perfect hold and the triangle shape in the crotch allows challenging mobility workouts.
In keeping with Wonda’s founding spirit, here’s another bikini from the brand now based in Hamburg. The Bikini bottom Palma the Bikini Top Kelly are also made of 76 to 78 percent ECONYL® regenerated nylon and complies with Oeko-Text 100 standards, making it free of any harmful substances. If you want to know how the prices for a bikini set (90€), for example, are made up, you can find a differentiated breakdown of taxes, marketing costs and even more on the Wonda homepage .
Wonda uses four different products as materials for their production. One is Br4, a bio-based polyamide that consists of 100 per cent renewable raw materials. The second, and probably most important material, is ECONYL, a nylon yarn made in Italy from recycled marine plastics, such as the fishing nets mentioned at the beginning. It is followed by Newlife, a yarn made from recycled plastic bottles, and Lycra Xtra Life, a durable elastane. All products are made in Portugal, Lisbon, where this brand story began when the founders had the Wonda idea after surfing on the beach. “And then we met the owner of a small swimwear manufactory in Lisbon. On a night out, in a bar. After a not-quite insignificant amount of cocktails. And he was part of a small group of fair fashion advocates from Portugal. Come on. This could not have just been a coincidence.”
Sustainability and transparency are thus high on the agenda of the young fashion label. The founders have taken up the cause of circular fashion. In other words, fashion that is returned from a linear product life cycle into a new product cyclein contrast to a throwaway society. In addition to the sustainable materials, the Wonda team promises this through the timeless and simple design, which invites the fashion to be worn over several seasons. In addition, all products are packaged 100 per cent eco-friendly for shipping and with every order, 1 euro is donated to the Lisbon Surfrider Foundation – they work for good and healthy lakes, rivers and seas in Portugal.
With Wonda, the founders are committed to a strong community and rely on feedback from interested parties and customers. The shared feeling of having saved the world’s oceans a little while doing sport in a sun-soaked park can be inspiring and spur others on to do good deeds.
By Maximilian Immer
