Two local companies, Lenna and Co and Saturday Strides, aim to add a female-oriented touch to the activewear market.
In the activewear space, these two companies have noticed gaps in the market regarding women's sections. Lenna and Co and Saturday Strides are filling them. Both brands are doing so by adding more feminine styles to women's workout clothing, expanding their options. Lenna and Co are doing so by adding feminine styles to active clothing, and Saturday Strides is creating running socks that combine function and style.
Lexi Langley and Abbie Adcox explained that with their activewear brand Lenna and Co, they wanted to add a feminine touch to activewear because they felt like even female options were masculine. "It's very solid and plain," Langley stated.
Adcox remembered the idea of activewear coming to them in a Pilates class. "I feel like Pilates is more geared towards femininity, and girlier outfits are usually worn there," Adcox explained.
Langley and Adcox had originally been researching swimwear. "There's this certain aesthetic girliness that is growing within the swim industry, and, even in clothing, there's tons of bows and girly things, but there's not a huge variety in activewear," Langley stated.
Langley and Adcox both expressed how, through their brand, they want to empower women to embrace their femininity and the strength that comes with it. Even the name of their company relates to this message. Lenna is the feminine version of a lion's strength.
This message has already reached women. Adcox posted on TikTok explaining Lenna and Co's message and asking women to come model for them. They came.
Lenna and Co launched in July and have two sports bras available for purchase on their website.
Lexi Langley majored in intercultural peacebuilding at BYU Hawaii and is now pursuing her master's degree in public administration at BYU. Abbey Adcox is pursuing her degree in family life at BYU.
After noticing a gap in the market for women's athletic socks, Abbey Averett and Samatha Jex started their company, Saturday Strides. Averett said they saw that there are so many major athletic companies that no one is making women's athletic socks — at least not in a stylish way.
They explained that running socks are made of high-quality material and focus on running performance. They also have compression, allow sweat to move away from the body and evaporate, and don't bunch up. Saturday Strides have the quality of a running sock but with a ruffle at the top to add style.
In one of their TikToks, Jex asks, "You dress up to give a presentation; you dress up to go to work, so why not dress up to go on a run?"
Averret started running about three years ago. She explained that, at first, her mindset was about how much weight she could lose. "As soon as I committed to running, everything changed for me," she said. "I changed my mindset from how I could be smaller to what my body is capable of. I have become completely hooked ever since."
Jex has been running every day since the seventh grade. She said she had bought several different running socks, and though they were doing their job, they left much to be desired in terms of style. "I just feel like they were not bringing joy to my life, like my running shoes or my running clothes were," Jex stated.
Jex majored in business management at SUU, and Averret is currently in the entrepreneurship program at BYU. Jex and Averret met through their husbands, who are both studying human resources at BYU. Averret explained how both she and Jex are very passionate about fashion in addition to running.
Langley wanted to let others know, if they are thinking of starting a business, they don't necessarily need to have prior experience.
"Neither one of us has studied entrepreneurship, business, like, nothing, we haven't even studied marketing," Langley explained. "We really just kind of had to dive in head first, knowing nothing, and figure out how to swim. And it's been a really amazing experience because we have learned things that we couldn't have learned anywhere else."
Averret and Jet are hoping to launch Saturday Strides in November.