Apparelle Wants to Disrupt the Way Women Shop Activewear
Apparelle, a curated online marketplace launching this week, wants to carve out a niche in the activewear and athleisure space for women who are looking to make high-quality, and sustainable, purchases.
Founder Amber Goodwin, a former investment banker and fitness enthusiast, said the idea of Apparelle was born from surveys and conversations with brand owners and consumers.
More from WWD
“What we’ve found is that women find it frustrating flicking through the multiple tabs to find what they’re looking for,” Goodwin said. “The market at the moment is very fragmented, and there are a lot of up-and-coming brands of medium size that focus on direct-to-consumer that aren’t represented on the platform.”
“By creating a dedicated destination for activewear, you’re getting over that problem. Obviously, places like Farfetch and Asos exist, but from our research, we’ve validated that there is room in the market for a dedicated platform just for activewear and athleisure,” she added.
Goodwin got so much positive feedback for the idea that she quit her high-paying job in finance and became an entrepreneur.
“I loved my career in finance. I learned loads. I was working with C-suite executives. It was super-interesting. It definitely wasn’t the long hours that made me stop. We had such an overwhelmingly positive response. People contacted me on Instagram after we started. I knew that this idea really had legs and I wanted to see what it could be,” Goodwin said.
She believes brand partners will get a lot in return from being on Apparelle.
“We share a lot of content with them from photo shoots, which they absolutely love. We also take a relatively low fee and provide them with prepaid shipping labels,” she said.
Apparelle will offer a wide range of workout clothing and gear, including yoga mats and hand weights from 25 brands such as Lorna Jane, Bala, and Free People Movement, and several up-and-coming labels.
“It’s all very curated, and each product has been tested. We don’t have a lot of very large players like Nike on it now. It’s something we would roll out after we expand in the future, but we also want to showcase more up-and-coming brands as well, to have a mix,” Goodwin said.
“We have a conscious edit as well. So beyond that standard way of filtering items, we have a curated selection of our favorite unitards. Moving forward, we’ve also got the capability to have a range of influencers to curate their selections. This won’t be live on Day One, but it’s in the pipeline,” she added.
Apparelle is also keen to move into the wellness and beauty categories.
“I’d like to build up an edit of gym essentials, with things like your Tangle Teezer hairbrush that you’d take to the gym, or the serum that you might use, etc. We have had conversations with a few brands, but with the launch, we’ve really been focusing on our core categories,” she said.
Most of the brands will ship directly to customers after orders are placed. Brands will also have the option to store the stock in the U.K. for speedier delivery.
Goodwin said the site’s mission, ultimately, is to “empower women to look and feel their very best” and “never have to compromise on the things that matter.”
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.