Outdoor Voices Brand Guidelines: Doing Things

Outdoor Voices made exercise unserious.

Outdoor Voices is a lesson in reframing a category around a feeling. Founded in 2013 by Ty Haney (in New York, later Austin), it rejected hardcore, performance-obsessed fitness and made recreational “activewear for Doing Things” — for dog walks, hikes and pickup games, not personal records. Its #DoingThings community of real people was the marketing.

The design carried the philosophy — soft, dusty technical-pastel colour-blocking (panels of dusty blue, gecko green, clay), a friendly, understated wordmark, and warm, casual photography of people actually moving. Its viral Exercise Dress became a signature hit. Its line said it all: “Doing Things.”

(Honest notes: Outdoor Voices had a turbulent run. Founder Ty Haney stepped down in 2020 amid financial strain, and the brand nearly collapsed in early 2024 (deep layoffs, store closures). It was acquired by Consortium Brand Partners in mid-2024 and relaunched in 2025, with Haney returning as a co-owner and creative lead — so it survived and restructured rather than shutting down. No official brand hex is published.)

Outdoor Voices lives in dusty technical pastels. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Outdoor Voices’ identity is soft, dusty and playful — a dusty blue, a gecko green, a clay, a butter, and an ink. The palette is a set of muted “technical pastels” deployed as colour-blocked panels across leggings and dresses. It signals recreational, warm, anti-hardcore movement rather than aggressive performance. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is soft pastels signal “not hardcore”. Outdoor Voices’ world is a friendly, dusty rainbow. For designers, it is a reminder that muted, warm pastels — especially colour-blocked — can reposition a category (fitness) as approachable and joyful, the opposite of black-and-neon performance gear. The takeaways: use muted pastels to soften an intense category; colour-block to make it playful and ownable; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using a deep dusty-blue for small text so the pastels stay soft.

The wordmark spirit is a friendly sans — warm and unserious.

Outdoor Voices’ identity carries a warm, friendly, unserious spirit — an understated wordmark over casual photos of people “doing things.” A friendly, clean sans captures the mood: it is approachable and human, the register of a brand that made exercise feel like play. Set against dusty technical pastels, the friendly type feels warm and inclusive — exactly the anti-hardcore personality Outdoor Voices carries. It is casual rather than aggressive, mirroring recreational movement. (Outdoor Voices’ real wordmark is a trademark and trade dress we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not published, so we don’t assert it.) Because the specific mark is not ours to use, the honest description is “a friendly sans spirit,” not the Outdoor Voices logo. The type behaves like the brand: warm, friendly and human.

Outdoor Voices stands for joyful movement.

Outdoor Voices is a lesson in a beloved brand that outran its business. It nailed a feeling — recreational, warm, community-driven, expressed in dusty pastel colour-blocking and the #DoingThings movement — and built one of the most distinctive identities in activewear. But love and a great look didn’t guarantee stability; the brand nearly collapsed before being recapitalised and relaunched. The differentiator is a warm, anti-hardcore identity and community.

For designers and brand-builders, Outdoor Voices offers a two-sided takeaway: a distinctive feeling and community are real equity — and can outlast financial turmoil. The lessons: reposition an intense category with soft colour and inclusive community; make the customer the marketing (#DoingThings); and know that strong design equity is what makes a brand worth relaunching. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: Outdoor Voices nearly collapsed in 2024, was acquired by Consortium Brand Partners, and relaunched in 2025 with founder Ty Haney back — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Outdoor Voices made movement joyful — proof that a feeling can be the difference.

Keep Outdoor Voices’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.