When Laura Low Ah Kee and Shannon Savage met while working in Lululemon in 2005, the Canadian brand of sportswear was not a global phenomenon yet.
Image loan: Courtesy left on Friday. Laura low ah kee, on the left and Shannon Savage, on the right.
“The term” Athleisure “has not yet existed,” says Savage Entrepreneur. “The whole world of women’s sportswear has not yet existed. So it was a really nice time to get involved in the company and we just always had this love for this active lifestyle and product and fashion.”
Low Ah Kee and Savage each executive roles in Lululemon; Low Ah Kee continued “many travels” during her term, but focused primarily on merchandising, and Savage worked on the design side.
After a vacation, partly spent in browsing Maui and Kiteboarding, Low Ah Kee was catching up when the inspiration struck. She wore Lululemon sports bras as an alternative of typical swimsuits for all their water activities, because they performed the way other products on the market couldn’t. What if they use their knowledge to create swimwear that has merged fashion and functioning?
The duo continued his profession in Lululemon and worked on a product passion product, inventing an exhaustive list of every little thing they wanted in an ideal bathing suit. But only until they left the work in the Athleisure giant, they were seriously seriously starting to start a company.
“We wanted names that had one part of nostalgia and one part of pure spontaneity.”
In 2017, among the “developing” bathing industry, which still didn’t design fashion, high -performance products that they wanted to see, co -founders took the opportunity to launch their very own brand premium swimsuits: on Friday, based in Victoria, Canada and Wenice in Kalifornia.
“Laura and I are the best weekend warriors,” says Savage, “And we always have an adventure somewhere. We wanted names that had one part of nostalgia and one part of pure spontaneity, the name with which people immediately identify, and intercepts this idea of the highest weekend departing.
Image loan: Courtesy left on Friday
Co -founders knew that “every great product starts with a great fabric”, so they decided to find one that might solve a few primary problems they saw on the existing swimsuits market.
The fabric had to be squeezed when it is wet and dry, and provides “smoothing cover”. “It really turned out that most of them swam when it gets wet, you feel quite naked, but not naked in a great way,” explains Savage. “It shows every lump and tumor.”
In addition, the material had to be lasting enough to maintain an energetic lifestyle without sacrificing your hand. The goal was to design a material that “as soon as you touch it, you are like: I have to put it on my body, I want to experience this product“, Says Savage.
Many attempts and mistakes were about finding a fabric that might do all this. Co -founders ordered countless fabrics to experiment; The mother of a friend sewed the first projects in the basement, and the low Kee Ah and Dzikus tested them in various climates, from the desert to the beach. Finally they landed on a smoothing dream material.
“It started as a side project of a bikini, and then stayed on Friday.”
Then it was that he got here up with a line of styles, that each of them served a clear goal. Co -founders self -financed their activities, investing their very own money in fabric, supplies and “enabling the best possible product”. “Shannon and I really hurried, [but] More with work load [hustle] Compared to Hustle, get money, “Low Ah Kee recalls.” It started as a side project of a bikini, and then stayed on Friday. “
Using their extensive existing skill sets in Activewear space, Low Ah Kee and Savage launched their online activities – and it was “immediately profitable”. On Friday, for some time he continued self-financed development by his e-commerce channel, but ultimately the co-founders wanted the board of advisers “with leather in the game”.
“The purpose of the advisers was to get advice, keep us responsible, get us out of the day we were very much”-says Low Ah Kee. “So we surrounded ourselves with three amazing advisers, whom we knew from our community, and put some money.”
Image loan: Courtesy left on Friday
When a pandemic hit, on Friday on Friday he had to move with the challenges of the supply chain, but the brand eventually got here out stronger and with more funds collected on the other side.
“We are a very cyclical, seasonal business,” says Savage, “So when you get a kind of Covid pressure cooker, all supply chains change, so when we get a huge drop in stocks in October, we can’t sell it. It happened. It happened. All times were arranged, so we needed money when we didn’t have money.”
Since then, extra money was left on Friday, and the low Ah Kee and Savage remain the owners of most of the brand.
“Uniforms made such a plus. They became viral in the Olympic village.”
Another exciting breakthrough got here in 2024, when on Friday he left official national uniforms for the Canadian beach volleyball team at Paris Olympics and World Tour. Savage designed a song that fulfilled the brand’s involvement in fashion AND Function: The overalls left the free arms of the players on one rating.
Image loan: Coliena Rentmeester
“It was [a] The most important career attraction, attraction of life, the most important brand, everything that happened at this stage in the fashion epicenter during the biggest sporting event that has ever happened – says Savage. “Uniforms made such a splash. In the Olympic village they became viruses and everyone talked about them. From a business standpoint we received global awareness.”
On Friday on Friday, international traffic increased by 136% during the Olympic Games and a continued sales increase by 67% in its hometown at the starting of 2025, in accordance with the company. The brand renewed cooperation with the team for the next 4 years to 2028.
In response to customer demand, on Friday on Friday it also expanded to other premium energetic clothing, from sweatshirts to tights, plans and others, keeping his involvement in fashion and performance at the head of each project.
Now, on Friday, it is an eight-digit brand, and Low Ah Kee and Savage are waiting for further development at the premium-clothing production arena and a likelihood to provide products that match the energetic life of ladies.
“I love that there is still such unused potential on the market, on clothing and generally in space,” says Savage. “It’s a very intimate place. Not everyone always feels comfortable in this place, so I love that we create this product [that allows] Women to be the best of life, if it is an Olympian or if it just goes out and play free volleyball on the beach. “