Hailing from Melbourne, best friends Vera Yan and Katia Santilli are most comfortable dressed all in black.
But after moving to Bondi the pair embraced the area's lifestyle and found themselves attending exercise classes on a daily basis and getting around in their activewear.
![Best friends and house mates Vera Yan and Kati Santilli are the founders of Nimble Activewear.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180114174331im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/8/v/c/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.h092t9.png/1513918222865.jpg)
"We saw activewear was not just for the gym anymore," says Yan. "There was a lot of technical apparel available like Lululemon and Nike but there was not the fashion option."
The pair saw a gap in the market for an activewear brand which featured fashionable prints, met technical requirements and was sold at an accessible price point and launched Nimble Activewear in 2014.
![Nimble Activewear turns over $4 million a year.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180114174331im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/8/v/c/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.h092t9.png/1513918222865.jpg)
Within three years the business has grown to employ 14 staff, turn over $4 million a year and open two stores in Bondi in Sydney and Armadale in Melbourne.
Launching from the kitchen table
Yan and Santilli started Nimble Activewear on the side while still working and self-funded the business without any outside investment.
"Our office was our kitchen table and our warehouse was the hallway," says Santilli. "We see every step through ourselves – from the design process, to sourcing fabrics to the pattern making and manufacturing process."
The early days of building the business had its challenges.
![Vera Yan and Kati Santilli spotted a gap in the market for a more fashion orientated activewear brand.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180114174331im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/8/v/c/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.h092t9.png/1513918222865.jpg)
"Part of being in business is about being so resilient," says Yan. "We did a photo shoot with a photographer who accidentally used an underwater camera. It was a cheap deal for a photographer and a studio to shoot in but when the photos came back the model looked so distorted and short. We had to completely reshoot the whole thing."
An early order of leggings shipped from the manufacturer with one leg shorter than the other but Santilli says it's all been part of the learning process.
![The new Nimble active wear store in Armadale.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180114174331im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/z/v/b/s/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.h092t9.png/1513918222865.jpg)
"There are days when you are like 'What the f--- am I doing, are we in too deep that we can't get out?'" she says. "But now we have people on the ground working for us in Asia and we have strict QC [quality control] policies before the fabric even gets made at the mills and then again before the goods shift."
Complementary backgrounds
Yan and Santilli have been friends since secondary school when they attended Melbourne's MLC together and still share a house in Bondi.
There are days when you are like 'What the f--- am I doing, are we in too deep that we can't get out?'
Katia Santilli
"I don't think we ever intended to go into business together," says Yan. "At school it was never a career option really but I think these days entrepreneurship is a very desirable career path."
Yan initially started her career at law firm Freehills and in investment banking while Santilli worked in product management and merchandising for brands including Puma in Australia and Burberry in London.
![Nimble Activewear's performance products are all priced under $100.](http://web.archive.org./web/20180114174331im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/8/g/8/3/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.h092t9.png/1513918222865.jpg)
"We just thought we have such complementary backgrounds,' says Yan. "It is tough doing a startup we are really feeling our way around. We are creating our own rules but to have the grounding of our past careers has been really important."
Bricks and mortar retail
The pair started off selling Nimble through their own online store and via Stylerunner and the Iconic.
"Julie [Stevanja, founder of Stylerunner] was amazing and picked us up very early," says Yan.
Traditional retail stores came next.
"Opening up the Bondi store was a really big turning point for us," says Yan. "For us the bricks and mortar is so important. Online and retail are an equal split of our business. We hold a lot of free instore events whether that is a yoga or pilates class or free talks. We try to team up with like minded businesses."
Activewear boom
Nimble has tapped into the rise of leggings as the new jeans with Ibisworld valuing the fitness and athletic clothing stores market at $2 billion in Australia.
"Sportswear is no longer confined to gyms or sporting fields, with consumers increasingly wearing their fitness apparel and footwear as streetwear or casual wear," Ibisworld's report states. "This trend has driven strong demand for fashionable activewear that can be worn in or out of the gym."
Ibisworld predicts industry revenue will increase by an annualised 5.7 per cent over the five years through 2017-18 and Yan and Santilli want to ride that growth.
"When we launched activewear was really crossing over in the fashion space," says Santilli. "People are very busy, they don't want to get changed after the gym and they want to be comfy. We showed in fashion week in Sydney in May and that was a real indication of the crossover."
Yan and Santilli list their major competitors as The Upside, PE Nation, Running Bare, Dharma Bums and Lululemon.
"There is more and more competition, but I think that is a healthy thing," says Santilli. "We have put a lot of research into our product because at the end of the day we are a technical brand. If they can't sweat and do an intense workout people won't come back to us."
Over the next five years the pair want to open eight stores Australia wide and further develop their online business which currently makes 15 per cent of its sales internationally.
"We think activewear is the Australian apparel product that swimwear was," says Yan.
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