Set Active risks $10M+ holiday sales to protect customers

By Nathan Brooks

Set Active generated eight figures in 2025 net sales—at least $10 million—and is profitable, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Its founder, Lindsey Carter, 35, now has $10 million-plus in projected Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales at risk after pausing product launches amid inconsistent deliveries.

Carter took on $20,000 in personal credit-card debt and filled her Los Angeles home with inventory when she launched the athleisure company in May 2018. Years of obstacles followed as she tried to break Set Active into a crowded activewear market, she says.

How Set Active found its product

Before launching Set Active, Carter ran her own social media company. While shopping around Los Angeles, she struggled to find matching workout sets she could wear while running errands, meeting a friend for coffee or working from home. She rejected the market's ubiquitous yoga-pose and upside-down-headstand look because it did not fit her life.

An associate then connected Carter with a production professional, she says. Carter ordered samples, collected feedback from friends and drew on the products with a permanent marker at her dining-room table. She then sent the marked products back to the manufacturer's designers.

Growth meets a slower market

Circana data show U.S. women's activewear spending increased 2% between October 2025 and September 2026. That was five percentage points below the 7% pace over the preceding 12 months. Activewear still made up 30% of U.S. apparel spending, according to Circana apparel industry analyst Kristen Classi-Zummo.

Classi-Zummo said shoppers now favor casual outfits and loungewear, including sweatpants and sweatshirts, over more active items such as leggings and sports bras. That preference suited Set Active's color- and pattern-filled clothing sets, which are not solely intended for workouts. Set Active's Instagram posts show women sitting on pickleball courts or on the banks of the Seine in Paris.

The business strained its founder

Carter used to lose sleep, cry to friends and struggle to be present in her personal life after a rough day at work. “I started understanding that struggle wasn’t necessarily a sign that something was going wrong. Sometimes it’s just the reality of building something ambitious,” she said. She also said she had learned not to let every setback rob her happiness.

Carter had two children after starting Set Active and has never taken maternity leave. She now calls that decision probably one of the biggest mistakes she has ever made.

In 2023, she experienced what she describes as symptoms of postpartum depression while running the startup. Carter said she felt like a horrible version of herself and worried that she had let down friends, employees and others.

A hard workday can still leave her tossing and turning at night, Carter says. Yet she has learned to return home to her family feeling grateful. She draws satisfaction from solving problems and doing a job she believes in, and takes challenges day by day as opportunities rather than enemies.

Fulfillment breaks the holiday plan

In 2026, Set Active struggled to consistently deliver orders to customers on time, Carter says. She declined to detail the varied reasons but said the stakes were high approaching the holiday shopping season.

On Oct. 19, Carter wrote on Instagram that Set Active would cancel its Black Friday and Cyber Monday product launches until further notice. The company would not “drop” any clothes until the products arrived in its Los Angeles warehouse. Carter said the decision put a projected $10-plus million in sales during the year's most popular shopping days at risk.

“I’m walking away from a hefty revenue number,” Carter now says, adding: “But at the end of the day, I built this brand on transparency and community, and the customer comes first to me always. And I’d rather make it right with the customer than hit a revenue goal.”

What does the launch pause change for customers?

For shoppers, the immediate change is that Set Active has canceled its Black Friday and Cyber Monday product launches until further notice. The company also will not “drop” any clothes until products reach its Los Angeles warehouse.

For Carter, the pause trades a projected revenue windfall for a commitment to dependable delivery and customer trust. It also puts Set Active's next phase of eight-figure growth squarely in inventory execution rather than holiday promotion.

For direct-to-consumer operators, the practical lesson is concrete: a promotional calendar cannot make up for unreliable fulfillment. Carter's company still operates in a category equal to 30% of U.S. apparel spending, but with women's activewear spending growth down to 2%, service and inventory control now matter alongside product demand.

The next test for Set Active is narrow and measurable. It must get inventory into the Los Angeles warehouse and deliver on time as the holiday shopping season peaks.