Sweaty Betty is a clothing and lifestyle brand that makes women feel empowered and confident in themselves. It was founded in 1998 with the intention of being
“designed by women, for women…to make you feel powerful and amazing from studio to street with the best fit and fabric.”
Since opening their first store in Nottinghill SB now has over 60 stores globally including a flagship store in Carnaby and Soho, New York that embraces not only their clothing line but their entire ethos with the Farm Girl cafe and blow-dry salon upstairs and a pilates and fitness studio downstairs. They’ve won numerous awards for it’s innovation as a brand and entrepreneurial skills as well as being recognised for it’s unique activewear designs and retail.
Having dug much deeper into the brand SB, I’ve realised it’s not just a clothing line, but a lifestyle. SB introduces and encourages women to find a perfect balance between work and play, with their clothing collection that flows seamlessly from “studio to street.”
Tamara, one of the brand’s founders, wanted to create a community in which women can become a sisterhood encouraging and inspiring each other to live a balanced and healthy lifestyle as an empowered woman. SB achieves this by their infamous bum-scultping Italian fabric being designed to be flattering, as well as fitting perfectly to a woman physique. Their “sizes are generous so when you fit a smaller size it makes you feel good,” as well as creative vibrant and quirky prints such as “like elephant print, or when it was London 2012 we had pigeons on leggings so it’s a bit of fun.” One of SB’s USPs is the fact they are so wearable in so many situations:
“the styles are so versatile, you can go work out, then have a coffee, then go to the cinema, or the park, or pub. You can go anywhere in them because they’re so fashionable as well as functional.” “SB is like the woman she’s fun and functional. It’s a mix of working out and working hard.”
When visiting several London stores, including the flagship in Carnaby the teams all identified their target consumer as “women who love to have fun, but love to work out as well.” Often local office workers aged between 25 and 60, with their most frequent customers being between 30 and 40. On top of this, SB receives a lot of interest from tourists, as an iconically British brand based all over the capital there is a lot of international interest especially form Middle Eastern women and Canadians.
SB has a huge digital presence as well as their stores, with a thriving instagram and youtube accounts as well as their blog and live streams frequently updating their website. With 335K followers and 86.6K subscribers SB use their platforms to introduce workouts and lifestyle tips as well as promoting their products on women from their customer base, a diverse range of models as well as sporting and unsung champions. A great way SB use their digital platforms in a more personal way is by writing a blog, promoting everything from the newest skincare products to sleeping tips, self help books and hot new recipes all to give their community tips into how to find their balance.
“My dream was to create clothing to make women feel powerful and beautiful.”
Their digital Women Rule campaign brings awareness through the choice of SB models, blog interviews, live industry talks, podcasts and even a range of charity t-shirts that explains and displays women of all different disciplines and walks of life telling their story and inspiring other women to find their mojo. The diversity and inclusivity of the campaign, putting all women on a level with each other despite their achievements or background displays how their clothes and their ethos is to be suited and to empower all women.
In store the teams create an extremely personal experience with a 1:1 relationship between customer and assistant. As all women teams it has a real sense of being a sisterhood; women talking and understanding other’s lifestyles, to be able to provide the best products and service for each individual leaving them feeling confident, comfortable and motivated as they leave the store.
Tamara and Simon also believed sustainability and being kind to the environment is a really integral aspect of the brand;
“this year we had a pair of leggings made completely from 17 recycled plastic bottles, which were so popular they’re going to be relaunch in 2020. We also have a recycling scheme, where if you bring a pair of leggings from any retailer to the store to be recycled you then receive £10 off you next purchase. We send them to SOEX who sought through the fibres and work out what’s recyclable to send back to the manufacturer. Also a lot of our products are repurposed, for example all out Italian Fleece is made from recycled cotton as well as the waste from cutting the patterns being reused meaning 45% of the product has been repurposed and recycled from the previous year.”
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