For years, the wellness conversation has centered on clean beauty, non-toxic skincare, and ingredient transparency — yet one of the most intimate categories in women’s lives has remained shockingly overlooked: activewear. While we celebrate the rise of clean formulations on our faces, many of us are still slipping into leggings made with PFAS, synthetics, chemical dyes, and finishes never designed to sit against highly absorbent skin.
Bette Bentley, the Los Angeles–based founder of Skimpies, created a brand born not out of trend forecasting, but urgent necessity. What began as a mother juggling two kids, breastfeeding, homeschooling, and living in leggings 24/7 during the pandemic quickly turned into a discovery that shook her: the leggings she practically lived in were full of chemicals and she was wearing them commando.
That moment sparked a movement.
In an intimate conversation with CEO and Founder of Skimpies, Bette Bentley opens up about the hidden…
toxins in leggings, her transformative health journey, the creation of Skimpies, and why the fem-care space is overdue for reinvention. Bring us back to the beginning. How did the idea for Skimpies first take shape? It really began in 2020, during peak lockdown.
I was living in leggings, nursing one baby while homeschooling the other, doing everything I could to keep life efficient and manageable. Then I suddenly started getting UTIs, something I had never experienced before.
I was going commando in synthetic leggings every day, and one night I finally stopped and Googled what these fabrics are actually made of. What I found was alarming: layers of synthetic fibers, PFAS, chemicals, and absolutely no real innovation around how women actually use leggings.
We wear them like underwear, yet nothing existed that was comfortable, seamless, organic, or intentionally designed to sit against the most absorbent skin on the body. Skimpies began with me simply trying to hack a solution and quickly realizing the industry had no interest in innovating…
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