I ordered my first Athleta Plus piece on a Tuesday at 4:42pm during a Nordstrom 8.5% off promo that stacked on top of a $20 Note credit, which is the kind of detail I remember because I am a former retail buyer and we are wired this way. The piece was a 1X Salutation Stash Pocket II tight in dark heather grey, $108 before the stack, $89 and change after. I am 36, size 18 on the bottom and a 1X-2X on top depending on the brand, and I had spent the prior eighteen months trying to replace the Old Navy Active compression legging that had finally given up at the inner thigh. I have now bought ten more Athleta Plus pieces across fourteen months. This is what I learned, what I returned, and what I will not pay full price for again.
I am writing this from a buyer’s lens, which means I track inseam, fabric content, retail vs sale price, and how a piece looks at month one vs month nine. I bought everything myself. Competitor brands named below are Old Navy Active, Girlfriend Collective, Lululemon’s Y-size range, and Beyond Yoga, all of which I have owned in the same size range during the same window.
Quick verdict
Rating: 4 out of 5. The bottoms are the reason to buy this brand, specifically the Salutation tight and the Brooklyn ankle pant. Tops are inconsistent in length and the Coaster Luxe tee runs short-torso. The size range stops at 3X (roughly size 22-24), which is the ceiling problem the brand still has not solved. Best for: sizes 14-22 who want a legging that outlasts an Old Navy Active by at least double, and who can catch the sales. Skip if: you wear above a 3X, you only need workout clothes for the gym (Old Navy Active does that for $25), or you refuse to pay over $80 for a legging. Where to buy: Salutation Stash Pocket II at Nordstrom , $108, with their free return policy as the safer first buy than ordering through Athleta direct.
What Athleta Plus is and where it sits in the market
Athleta is the activewear arm of Gap Inc., the same parent company that owns Old Navy and Banana Republic. It launched in 1998 as a women-only activewear catalog and has positioned itself as the slightly-more-sustainable alternative to Lululemon. Athleta Plus, the extended size range, launched in 2019 and runs 1X through 3X, which translates to roughly a size 16 through 24 depending on the piece. The brand is a B Corp and runs a recycled-polyester fabric program called Powervita.
Where it sits in the market: above Old Navy Active on price and quality, below Lululemon on technical performance, roughly even with Beyond Yoga and Girlfriend Collective on price per piece. The Salutation tight at $108 puts it $20 below the Lululemon Align in plus sizes and roughly $40 above the Old Navy Active PowerSoft. The size range issue is real: Athleta Plus stops at 3X while Old Navy Active goes to 4X. If you wear above a 3X, Athleta is not a brand for you yet.
My experience across fourteen months
I bought the first Salutation tight in December 2024. I wore it twice a week, mostly to Pilates and to long walks along the lake, washed it cold in a mesh bag and hung it to dry every time. That pair is still in rotation in May 2026. The waistband has held its compression, the inseam stitching is intact, the dark heather has faded maybe one shade. By contrast, my last Old Navy Active PowerSoft in a similar wash rotation lasted about seven months before the inner thigh started pilling and the waistband relaxed past the point of staying up during anything more active than a walk to the mailbox.
Over fourteen months I bought eleven pieces: the original Salutation in dark heather (kept), a Brooklyn ankle pant in black 1X (kept), a Coaster Luxe tee in oat 1X (returned, short torso), an All Day bra in 2X (kept), a second Salutation in cypress (kept), a Conscious Crop tank in dark navy (kept), a Brooklyn ankle pant in cypress (kept), a Polartec jacket in 2X (returned, shoulder off), a second Coaster Luxe in 2X (returned, still short), a Trekkie North jogger 1X (kept), and a Studio bra in 2X (kept). Eight kept, three returned – a 73% keep rate, which is high for me. My usual return rate on activewear is around 40%.
The piece I wear most is the Brooklyn ankle pant in cypress. It is a structured pull-on pant in a four-way stretch ponte that looks like a dress pant from a normal distance and behaves like a legging at the waist. I wore it on a five-hour flight to Phoenix in November, slept in it on the plane, and arrived without the bagged-out knee creases that a real wool pant would have. At $99 it is the cheapest professional-but-actually-a-legging pant I have found in plus sizes.
What works
The Salutation tight is the best-engineered piece in the Athleta Plus lineup. The Powervita fabric (recycled polyester with elastane) is denser than Old Navy’s PowerSoft and lighter than Lululemon’s Luxtreme, with enough opacity at the seat that I do not have to do the squat test in a fitting room anymore. The high-rise sits at my actual high rise, not three inches below it like the Old Navy version did. The side pockets fit my iPhone 15 Pro without slipping. After fourteen months and roughly 80 wash cycles, the original pair has lost almost no compression.
The Brooklyn ankle pant solves a problem I had been trying to solve since 2022 – how to wear something to client meetings that does not feel like restrictive pants but reads as actual pants. The ponte has enough structure to hold a side seam and enough stretch to sit through a 90-minute meeting without digging. The cypress is the closest thing to a true olive in the plus activewear category. I bought a second pair when the first proved out, which is the highest praise I give a piece of clothing.
The return process is easy. Athleta direct gives 60 days for a full refund with a prepaid label and no restocking fee. Nordstrom carries the full plus assortment with their free no-time-limit return and lets me stack Notes promo savings on top of the same retail price for a 5-10% effective discount.
The bras are better than expected. The All Day bra is the everyday wirefree bra I had been searching for, with enough support for a 38DD frame to walk and do light Pilates without bounce, and smooth enough seaming that it does not show under a fitted tee. The Studio bra is the medium-impact version, which I wear for reformer Pilates. Neither will replace a Wacoal or a Cuup for true running support, but for low-impact use they are well-cut.
What does not work
The size range ceiling is the brand’s biggest unresolved problem. Athleta Plus tops out at 3X, which is roughly a size 22-24 depending on the cut. Old Navy Active goes to 4X. If you wear above a 3X, this is not a brand that has built for you yet, and the marketing about inclusivity is contradicted by where the size run stops. Six years in, the lack of a 4X tier is a choice the brand keeps making.
The tops are inconsistent in length and most run short in the torso. The Coaster Luxe tee is the worst offender – I tried it in both 1X and 2X and both rode up at the front hem when I lifted my arms. The Conscious Crop tank is fine, but it is explicitly a crop, so it does not solve the regular-tee problem. If you are long-torsoed in plus, expect to return half the tops you order.
The fleece outerwear has a shoulder fit issue. The Polartec jacket I bought in 2X had a shoulder seam that sat half an inch inboard of my actual shoulder, which gave the whole jacket a pulled-in look at the upper arm. I returned it. The shoulders on the jackets are graded narrower than the body. Check the shoulder fit specifically before keeping one.
Some pieces shrink. The Trekkie North jogger lost about an inch and a half of inseam after the first three washes, even on cold and hang dry. Wearable, but it now hits above my ankle bone instead of at it. Factor in roughly an inch of shrinkage on the cotton-blend pieces.
The full retail prices are not justifiable without the sales. A $108 legging is in the same price tier as Lululemon, but the technical performance is not at Lululemon’s level for high-impact training. The brand runs 20-40% off three or four times a year plus end-of-season clearance on color discontinuations, and that is when the pieces become real value.
How it compares to alternatives
The plus activewear category has matured. Three real alternatives, with honest takes on each:
Old Navy Active PowerSoft – $25-45 for leggings, size range to 4X. The Old Navy Active PowerSoft is the right answer if you want a workout legging for under $30 and you do not need it to last more than a year. It is softer at the hand than Athleta’s Powervita but thinner, less compressive, and pills along the inner thigh by month seven. The size range is the win – 4X exists here in a way it does not at Athleta. Use Old Navy for the gym and the Salutation for everything else.
Girlfriend Collective Compressive Legging – $88, size range to 6XL. The compression is real, the recycled-bottle fabric story is real, and the size range goes further than Athleta. The Compressive is thicker than the Salutation, which is good for higher-impact movement and less comfortable for all-day wear. The waistband sits straight across without contouring, which is less flattering on a curvy waist-to-hip ratio than the Salutation’s slight curve. Pick Girlfriend if you want compression and a 4X or above; pick Athleta if you wear 3X or below.
Lululemon Align in Y-sizes – $98-128, sizes to Y6 (roughly a 20). The Align is the softest legging in the category and is designed for low-impact wear (yoga, walking, lounging) rather than the medium-impact range the Salutation handles. The Y-size range stops at 20, which excludes most plus shoppers above that. If you wear up to a 20 and you want the softest legging for low-impact use, the Align is it. For everything else, the Salutation is more versatile.
Beyond Yoga Spacedye Caught in the Midi – $99, sizes to 4X. Spacedye fabric has a slight heathered texture and a substantial hand, compression is moderate, and the size range goes a step further than Athleta. The waistband sits softer than the Salutation, which is comfortable for lounging and less supportive for active wear. The closest Athleta-tier replacement in a true 4X.
Who should buy and who should not
Buy Athleta Plus if you wear between a size 14 and a size 22, you want activewear that doubles as light professional wear (the Brooklyn ankle pant especially), you can wait for the 20-40% off seasonal sales, and you do not mind returning roughly a third of what you order to find the pieces that work for your specific torso length and shoulder width. Buy if you have spent the last two years cycling through Old Navy Active and you are tired of replacing leggings every six months. Buy specifically the Salutation tight, the Brooklyn ankle pant, the All Day bra, and the Studio bra – those are the pieces I would buy again at full price.
Skip Athleta Plus if you wear above a 3X. The size range still does not include you and there is no point pretending otherwise. Skip if you are looking for high-impact running gear – the bras and the leggings are not engineered for that and there are better options at Wacoal or Brooks for the running side. Skip if your activewear budget caps at $40 a legging, in which case Old Navy Active is the right floor for you and there is no shame in it. Skip the Coaster Luxe tee specifically if you are long-torsoed.
Where to buy and current pricing
Athleta sells direct at athleta.com (Athleta and Athleta Plus in one extended size run, which I respect as a UX choice). The full plus assortment is also at Nordstrom, where I buy most of my Athleta now because of the free no-time-limit return and the Note stack. The Salutation Stash Pocket II runs $108 and drops to $69-79 on sale two to three times a year. The Brooklyn ankle pant runs $99 and rarely goes deeper than 30% off. Buy through Nordstrom if you want the safer return window.
Frequently asked questions
Does Athleta Plus run true to size?
True to size on bottoms, slightly small in the torso on tops. My size 18 fits the 1X Salutation tight without sizing up. For tops I usually go up to 2X to get torso length, though the Coaster Luxe still ran short even at 2X.
Is Athleta Plus worth it over Old Navy Active?
Yes for longevity, no for budget. The Salutation outlasts the Old Navy PowerSoft by roughly double (14+ months vs 7-8 months at the same wear frequency), so cost per wear is comparable over time. If you have $30 to spend, Old Navy. If you have $80-100 and want it to last, Athleta during a sale.
How does the return process work?
Athleta direct gives 60 days for a full refund with a prepaid label and no restocking fee. Nordstrom carries Athleta Plus with their free no-time-limit return, which is the safer first-buy if you are testing the brand.
What is the size range and is it really plus-inclusive?
1X to 3X, roughly a US 16 to 24. That includes mid-plus and excludes upper-plus. If you wear above a 3X, Athleta has not built for you yet. Girlfriend Collective and Beyond Yoga both go further.
Final verdict
Worth it at $79 not $108. The Salutation tight and the Brooklyn ankle pant are the reasons to buy this brand and the reasons I will replace mine when the current ones eventually wear out, which based on the 14-month track record will be a while. Skip the Coaster Luxe tee and the fleece outerwear until the fit grading at the shoulder and torso gets fixed. Buy the Salutation Stash Pocket II at Nordstrom during a Note event, give it six months on a cold-wash hang-dry rotation, and judge it then. Worth it.