How a Christmas Eve diagnosis led Jade Payne to build WildBody, and prove an entire industry wrong

THREE DAYS OF SILENCE
The sonographer stopped mid-scan. She turned the screen away and left the room. When the radiologist came back in, he told Jade Payne to go straight to emergency.
Jade was 33. A mother of four. She trained CrossFit six times a week, had never drunk or smoked, and had gone in for what she thought was a routine appointment. Then the words that change everything. Go straight to emergency. They could see something.
A CT scan followed. Then three days of silence. On Christmas Eve at 11am, she was told it was cancer. A 17cm tumour on her left kidney. Two years earlier, she had also watched her father die from cancer.
Surgery in January was a success. She lost her left kidney. Everything came away clean. But recovery was slow, her remaining kidney had been quietly overworking for years, and the road back was longer than anyone expected.

THE LID CAME OFF
At fifteen, Jade had wanted to be a fashion designer. She loved to sew. One thing stopped her. She could not draw. So she let the dream go.
Watching her father die of cancer changed something in her. Being told two years later that she had it herself changed everything. The things that had once felt like reasons not to act stopped feeling like reasons at all.
As she recovered, she changed the way she ate.

“Failing stopped scaring me. Dying scared me. Leaving this earth without making it better scared me.”

Then her cookware. Her cleaning products. She pulled at thread after thread until she had worked through her entire house. Then, eight weeks post-surgery, cleared to return to the gym, she turned her attention to the thing she had worn against her skin for hours a day for fifteen years.
Most activewear is made from polyester and nylon, petroleum-derived synthetics that have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. Concerns around PFAS, chemical dyes and microplastics are growing. The wellness language plastered across the category, words like performance, eco and movement, often had very little to do with what was actually in the fabric.

“I had been sold wellness, performance and eco. I was looking straight at greenwashing.”

She went looking for an alternative. She tried every natural fibre brand she could find. Nothing performed. The waistbands rolled. There were front seams. The fabrics were built for looking the part, not training in it. If no one else was going to build natural fibre activewear that actually worked, she would.

EIGHT MONTHS OF NO
She started from scratch. Tech packs, colours, cuts, fits. She wanted to bridge the gap between performance activewear and natural fibres, and she wanted to do it in ten sizes, from a 4 to a 22. That gap had always existed for a reason. Smaller size ranges are easier to produce and more profitable to sell. She was not interested in easy.
Manufacturers said no for eight months. The minimums were too high. The fabric was too difficult. The size range was too risky. Then she found one whose account manager understood this was different. Sampling began. Still not quite right. So Jade and her mum flew to China, spent seven days on the ground fine-tuning every detail, and came home with something they believed in.
They launched in November, in the middle of Black Friday, against the advice of everyone around them. She did not listen. WildBody sold out within days.

“Launching across ten sizes was too risky, they said. She did it anyway.”

WHAT WILDBODY IS BUILDING
Since launch, WildBody has sold out four times and been named a 2026 Clean + Conscious Awards finalist for Best Activewear. Every piece uses GOTS certified organic cotton and OEKO-TEX certified dyes. The range is designed without polyester or nylon fabric blends, in sizes 4 to 22, built above all else to perform.
In May came the Momentum Bralet. A high-impact performance bralet made from 88% GOTS certified organic cotton, with adjustable straps, adjustable back and a fit from AA to G cup. That one piece pushed WildBody properly into performance territory and made clear what the brand was here to prove.
In August comes the FlowRun Shorts. An organic cotton outer, a merino wool lining, real pockets, a supportive waistband. A first of its kind in women’s activewear. For the campaign shoot, Jade put them on a track sprinter, a rugby league star and a netball champion. Three women, three sports, three different shapes and sizes. Not athletes as an aesthetic choice, but as proof. Natural fibre can perform at the top level. The industry has been wrong.

“WildBody is here to turn this industry upside down. We are only just getting started.”

Jade Payne looked at what she was wearing, what her daughters were wearing, and what women everywhere were wearing without knowing what was in it. She decided that needed to change. So she built the brand that changes it.
WildBody is that brand. And it is only just beginning.

WildBody is available at www.wildbody.com.au. FlowRun Shorts launch August 2026.
All pieces use GOTS certified organic cotton and OEKO-TEX certified dyes, designed without polyester or nylon fabric blends.

Words by Susanna Stang-Holm
Images courtesy of WildBody