We provide the highest quality, best fitting, most flattering activewear you’ll ever own. Regardless of how you choose to sweat, we want you to love your Shakti, so we make durable, multi functional products that will perform. Yoga, pilates, spin, pole fitness, HIIT, Barre; whatever your passion, our fabrics and designs will ensure you look and feel your best.
We make products that enhance our passions. Yoga, run, dance, bike, hike, train; we’re passionate about our health and we make movement a priority. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold outside, if it’s raining, or if we’re tired, we’re always looking for our next adventure and we expect our activewear to keep up.
Our products are durable, functional, adaptable, and since we also love fashion, beautiful. Quality is paramount. We expect our clothing to last. Our Rio de Janeiro based factory and fabric mills share these values. Together, we design and build styles that will stand up to the toughest workouts, the stretchiest yoga classes and the sweatiest spin classes.
Our fabrics are at the very core of what makes our products special. All our materials contain four way stretch that will move as you move, stretch as you stretch. They are moisture wicking and allow your skin to breathe. They regulate core temperature, keeping you cool as your workout intensifies. Our fabrics are tough, made to last, yet uber soft against the skin. And since we love Mother Earth, our fabrics use 100% biodegradable nylon that will fully decompose within three years of being in a landfill environment. So not only are our fabrics kind to your skin, they are kind to the environment too. Each one of our products is made from one or a combination of the following materials:
‘Coolform’ -- an eco friendly, knitted fabric that combines air jet textured polyamide with spandex. Developed with Supplex® technology, it is a high performance, moisture wicking fabric that feels cottony soft against the skin, contains four-way stretch and retains its shape and color over time. Breathable, quick-dry, free from harmful chemicals with the added bonus of 50+ UV protection against ultraviolet radiation, we recommend Coolform fabric for all your sweaty endeavors!
We make all our solid color styles in this fabric including our solid side string shorts.
‘Coolform light’ -- an eco friendly knitted fabric that combines Amni® polyamide with elastane yarn. Lighter weight and thinner than our Coolform fabric, Coolform Light is meant specifically for heated rooms and hot places. This material is so light and so soft that it is often described as equivalent to the feeling of wearing nothing at all! Free from harmful chemicals while offering 50+ UV protection, we make all our prints in this material, and some styles in black too.
We recommend this material for hot yoga, during the summer months, or as an uber comfortable first layer during colder months for your outdoor activities.
Textured Coolform -- a funkified version of our Coolform fabric, with slightly less weight. You’ll find the cotton soft feel, moisture wicking properties, four-way stretch and shape retention are all present in this fabric, but also that it ‘pops’ giving it a 3D effect. Remember those pop-up books you read as a child? Think of our Textured Coolform as the material version of a pop-up book. Free from harmful chemicals while offering 50+ UV protection it grabs the eye and pairs beautifully with our other fabrics.
This fabric is a little heavier, and best suited for non heated activites. Yoga, dance, barre and pilates are great examples.
Stretch Mesh -- lightweight and stretchy, it offers ventilation without the bulk. Perfect for your active lifestyle, Stretch Mesh holds you in and breathes at the same time. We feature our Stretch Mesh mainly as an accent fabric and in combination with our Coolform and Coolform Light fabrics.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is my home. Since I was 13 years old I’ve been fascinated by eastern philosophy. Yoga and arts are my two passions and my background is in theatre and dance. I started teaching Hatha yoga in Brazil in 1997. In 2003 I earned a Bikram Yoga Teacher Certification. In 2005 I studied with Dharma Mitra ( and in 2006 I studied with Ana Forrest .
Brazil is famous for colorful exotic bikinis, and in 1999 I started Gold Rio Swimwear, a bikini company, in the USA. For about 4 years I sold bikinis to surf shops on the east and west coast. But that wasn’t my passion. I always follow my heart so in the spring of 2003 I registered for the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles.
The next nine weeks were going to be spent in a hot, sweaty room and I needed to wear something in between a bathing suit and an aerobic fitness outfit. So I came up with several colorful little side string shorts and tops. Since the first day of training my colleagues complimented my outfits. Some asked, knowing about Gold Rio Swimwear, if they could buy some outfits from me. That inspired me to consider a yoga wear line as most people at that time were still wearing long dark pants in a 100 degree yoga room. I looked around everyday and thought; “this room would look much better if people were wearing more colorful and comfortable outfits”.
That September was the first Yoga Expo and Bishnu Gosh Yoga Competition and there were exhibitor booths available. I decided to set up a booth at the expo for my Gold Rio swimwear and with my new yoga wear line.
I had to come up with a name for the yoga clothes as Gold Rio was better for the swim suits. I recalled back in 1992 when the first Earth Summit took place in Brazil. Leaders from different religions and philosophies from all over the world were there. A group of young people from Rio de Janeiro including myself volunteered to work with some charitable groups. I took part in a program that taught meditation and yoga in the slums of Rio.
One of the program leaders was a female monk from India and by the end of the three month event she asked if I would like to receive a personal mantra for meditation and a spiritual name. I accepted so she gave me the mantra, which I should keep secret, and a spiritual name that I could use if I liked. The name was Shakti. I loved it and looking into the meaning of it, I liked it even more because of its meaning — female energy, female power.
I know that other companies have been inspired to make similar outfits (some are making exactly the same designs and even present themselves as a line similar to Shakti). What a compliment! I’m proud to say that if you buy Shakti Activewear you are buying the original. And I promise that I will always try come up with new ideas, designs, styles and fun colors so you can bend, stretch, sweat, live and most of all to grow in your yoga path. Please enjoy our site and thank you for your business!!
-Ana Bugarim Santos
