Chicago's unique architecture played muse to two Chicago entrepreneurs jumping into the fashion business.
Powwful is a new line of colorful, full coverage sports bras designed by Chicago entrepreneurs Lotika Pai and Wen Yao, inspired by Chicago's architecture and famous landmarks. An orange and pink bra with V-shaped straps was inspired by Alexander Calder's "Flamingo" statue in Federal Plaza. A thick-strapped blue and yellow bra was inspired by the "wide boulevard" of Michigan Avenue. Other design inspirations in their six-item debut collection, which launched on their website this week, includes the Loop, area code 312, the Chicago River bridges, and the Old Town Triangle. Bras are made with flatlock seams that prevent chafing, and high-performance breathable, sweat-wicking fabric with four-way stretch.
“Our goal is to have the highest degree of quality at a price point that will not bar women from enjoying high-end technical fabrics alongside beautiful designs," said Pai over email. "I also wanted sports bras that were comfortable, brightly colored and made you feel happy to wear."
“One of our beta testers told us the bra fabric was so soft and the fit so comfortable she slept in it, woke up and went for a run.” Pai said. “We loved hearing that.”
Each sports bra costs $36.00, and are available on their online store. They're launching a line of tank tops next spring, and hope to expand to other cities and countries in the future.
Neither Pai or Yao has a background designing clothes, but the duo (who have been friends for the past six years) have personal reasons for starting the Powwful project.
Pai studied engineering and received her MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She worked in investment banking and founded two startups. Q-IT Tech is an edtech company; Jedi Labs is a product development firm focused on two growing businesses in Asia, Bybo and Trabug.
Due to health reasons, it was key for her to stay active, even while juggling various business pursuits.
“To be frank, I have insulin resistance and if I don’t maintain an active lifestyle, I gain weight very easily," she said. "I also have a six-year-old son who keeps me constantly on the move. Staying active makes me happy and keeps me focused on the important things in my life."
"So I wanted to create a product that brought color and fun into my routine workouts," Pai said.
Yao, who has a masters degree in marketing from Illinois Institute of Technology, previously launched a fashion startup called Style Check-in, a curated personal styling service for petite women, and worked in marketing with Anna Fong Collection and Akira. She said she's always been active and health conscious, but she was disappointed at the current offerings from athleisure brands.
“I didn’t see anything that stood out – everything looked like a sea of sameness and wasn’t exciting.” Wen said. “And a lot of the active wear was very overpriced. That’s when I started thinking that there was an opportunity for well designed, affordable and functional active wear.”
Though the athleisure trend has already exploded in the United States, with brands from Lulu Lemon to Athleta to Fabletics fueling a $97 billion market, the Powwful founders are looking to expand to Asia where they believe there's an untapped market.
“Asia’s current fitness industry is still in its infancy and is targeted mainly towards a small fraction of fashion conscious city dwellers. But increasingly more and more people are focusing on their health and interest in active lifestyles is at an all time high,” Yao said. “We plan to ride that wave.”
