Nimble activewear
It was only when we did that did it really feel like a business. I only quit my job a year ago we even made our first hire before I left my job. It felt just like a side hobby initially, and we both juggled part-time work. It was a six-month process to build our website, source our fabrics, and manufacture our products. But people were expressing themselves more, and more and more women were happy to wear activewear outside of just exercise. Something consumers would really value.īack then it was very Lululemon heavy - a lot of block colours that were all one and the same. We started to go to the gym together, and we realised there was a gap in the market for beautiful but functional activewear. Katia had to return to Australia while she was waiting for her European passport to come through, so she came up to Sydney to stay with me. We really went at it, and pursued our careers quite aggressively. You'll also receive messages on behalf of our partners. I went to Sydney and Katia went to London where she worked for Burberry. As we grew up our careers took us to different places. Katia and I have known each other since we were 14 - we both went to school in Melbourne together. Yan spoke to SmartCompany about the explosion in the athleisure market, and how listening to a bit of early advice could have saved the two founders some trouble. The first Nimble bricks-and-mortar store opened in February last year in Bondi Beach, and the team is currently staking out locations for a Melbourne store. Four years on, the business now pulls in more than $3 million in revenue annually. Source: Suppliedįriends from the age 14, Katia Santilli and Vera Yan’s careers in finance and merchandising took them all across the world before the two found themselves together again in Sydney, going to the gym and formulating the plan for an activewear brand that would be both fashionable and functional.Īfter six months of planning, Nimble Activewear was launched in 2013, with Santilli and Yan running the business as a “side hobby” while still working part-time. Co-founders of Nimble Activewear Katia Santilli and Vera Yan (left).