What Women Want
Performance ≥ style. Plus a conversation with Halfdays' co-founder and CEO Ariana Ferwerda
I logged into LinkedIn late last week and spotted a post from a creative growth company called edition + partners sharing some research they’d done around the lack of performance-oriented running brands intentionally built for women or by women. It generated a lot of discourse there and on the sub-reddit r/runningfashion (until it was deleted due to pushback). Then it popped up here on Substack. A bunch of folks sent it to me – my brand is strong – and it seemed to have caught people’s attention.
The piece by Tom Garland does a solid job of laying out the case that a performance gap exists in the women’s running market. I appreciated this nuance“Whilst it's generally accepted that women shop style-first, performance second we believe that there is a customer shift at play. More women are participating in high-performance sporting events like marathons, ultras, or ironman competitions than ever before.” Of course, one could argue a performance-first, style-second female consumer has always existed. Much like there’s always been an audience for women’s sports, but folks weren’t interested in investing in it until it became a “thing.”
This idea that many brands fail to understand the nuances of the female consumer isn’t just a running problem. This week WWD reported on a study from Wasserman’s global impact and advisory platform, The Collective, that found 49 percent of women said they don’t feel that brands understand them, and “While many survey respondents indicated that brands’ products “do not reflect their real needs,” nearly half said that marketing continues to lean on outdated stereotypes.”
Ultimately, the edition + partner’s piece’s biggest flaw is its lack of historical context. There’s no mention of Oiselle, the female-led brand that effectively started the independent running wave in 2007. Nor is there much mention of the systemic challenges female-led brands face. I’m nitpicking because this is a topic close to my heart. It’s also one I’ve been actively exploring in the past weeks for Runher Magazine (subscribe here), as I examine the reasons there’s a dearth of women-founded run brands in this running brand boom.
I’ll save what I’ve found in my reporting for a later date (spoiler alert: it’s the patriarchy!) but what interests me here is the framing of this edition + partners’ story. “Where’s the Satisfy for women?” It asks. A better question might be: where’s the Halfdays for running?
If you look at the outdoor industry, some of the leading emerging brands are women-led. Brands like Halfdays, Seniq, and Hikerkind. Like running, their industry is historically incredibly white and incredibly male. They too face challenges around funding, performance skepticism, and the boys club network. And yet these brands are breaking through and standing out both in the outdoor category and in the wider fashion ecosystem.
In running, there maybe a dozen women-led brands designing for performance first and style second. Brands like Pruzan, Oiselle, and Mile Off, among others. Yet they haven’t (yet) cut through in the same way as brands like Halfdays have in outdoors. Why?
My guess is that the void Halfdays and others addresses for outdoorswomen is larger than it is in running. Women have been so underserved and so desperate for good stylish skiing and hiking gear, that these brands fill a huge hole. In running, women undoubtedly have more options – whether from co-ed brands or activewear giants like Lululemon, Alo, or Vuori. But, just because women have options doesn’t mean there isn’t space for a “vibey” women’s running brand (see Wasserman’s report above).
In speaking to founders of brands like Pruzan and Mile Off, I’ve heard over and over again that their main focus is solving the unique problems women face on the run. And as more women enter the sport, there are more problems to solve. Women runners deserve brands that center their needs and preferences. That deeply understand the nuance: gear can be pretty cute and pretty hardcore at the same time.
I’m rambling, but I thought this Halfdays comparison was a nice opportunity to 1) reframe the performance running conversation around a women-led brand succeeding in an adjacent industry. 2) Start to unpack some of the issues around performance skepticism that women-led brands face and 3) Tee up the following conversation with Halfday’s founder Ariana Ferwerda. I love synergy!
Brand Chat Volume 8: Halfdays
In Conversation with co-founder & CEO
The question I like to start with, is how did you get introduced to the sports world and do you remember an outfit you had to wear?
Oh, that's a good question. I played soccer. That was my first sport.
The outfits were just unisex t-shirts and horrible polyester shorts. It's funny because that really didn't evolve for a long time. That’s what I was still wearing for soccer practice in high school. Maybe things got a little more technical like an Under Armour dry-release longsleeve from Dick's Sporting Goods. But the baseline was the same: big, baggy, polyester.
Ditto. Everything was humongous (and in my case, purple!). So switching gears, what was the inciting moment for you in terms of building Halfdays?
I grew up skiing in Michigan so it was a sport I always loved. After college, I moved to Colorado to work for the NPD Group. They’re a retail consulting and analytics company that helps brands and retailers make data-informed decisions.
I was working in the Boulder office and working on these outdoor clients specifically. I kept seeing them come in and out of the office, brands like Columbia, Patagonia, and The North Face. And it was always these older men coming in and talking about the strategy of the brands and what decisions they would be making around product lines.
Simultaneously, I was shopping for skiwear at REI and other stores in Denver. It was the first time I’d shopped for skiwear as an adult. My first time buying my own kit. I was just so discouraged because I couldn't find anything I liked. I was like, ‘This is so much money to spend on something that doesn't feel good to put on and go out on the mountain.’ It was very different from activewear where you could go into Lulu or buy something from Alo and feel excited to look cute at the gym. That just wasn't the experience with ski.
I met Kylie McKinnon [my co-founder] and she said, “Oh yeah, I feel the exact same way. I've been sponsored by these big brands throughout my career and they don't listen to the feedback that the athletes give them. I’ve been wearing the same pants that someone on my team who was like five foot one was wearing and I'm five foot nine. And this girl's swimming in them and they're floods on me.’ The colors, the fit, none of it was what she was looking for. That was a light bulb moment for us
I'm a recreational skier sticking to groomed blues and blacks and Kylie's competing on the world stage, but the two of us had the same thought that there’s this gap for something in the market that's technical, but also fits into a woman's wardrobe, and is truly designed for her from product to brand. That was the genesis for us.
Can you talk about how Halfdays, starting with the name, embodies a different approach to the outdoors and why you thought that was important?
It’s one of the big insights we learned when we were starting the brand. We interviewed and surveyed over 200 women. I'm so happy that we did this work because it really informed our core brand pillars. What we kept hearing was these women saying was: ‘I haven't skied since I was in high school. My fiance or husband's family are big skiers and they're all going to Vail for the holidays. I'm nervous 'cause I haven't skied in over a decade. I don't have any gear. I don't want look like I don't know what I'm doing. It's so expensive.’
They were just rattling off barriers to entry and it was just overwhelming for them. There isn't a resource that makes it easier, between the product or the attitude in the space. So we know approachability needed to be at the core of the brand, breaking down barriers to entry. Everything from the way we talk about the product to building trust in the fit, the fabric and just having all the technical necessities that they need, but they don't have to really think about it. We're packaging it up with a pretty bow and they can trust it.
So from the name of the brand, to the way we talk to customers, the colors, the way we photograph women, and build this community focused on being an approachable brand inviting people to the outdoors.
Our mission is to bring more women to the outdoors. My co-founder, Kylie, is an Olympic skier, she competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She's had so many instances on mountain where people are just kind of rude. Maybe she's, taking photos at the top of the mountain and she's just this like blonde girl. So they immediately assume, ‘Oh, this girl's just here to take photos.’ It’s just such an interesting thing where she's very serious about the sport, but because she is maybe wearing something that's pink or she's taking photos on the mountain, it automatically becomes this thing that people give her shit.
So she's had a lot of experiences where it's this super competitive, experts-only energy on the mountain for no reason. We're all at the resort trying to have a good time. That's one big thing we're trying to break down.
I'm learning to uphill and I have practiced just getting my skis and skins on at home or in my backyard because I'm terrified of someone being a jerk to me if I struggle to put my boot into my ski on the mountain. That energy is real.
I'd love for you to talk about this moment in skiing, that we're in, that I think is also reflective of kind of this buzz around running and tennis. These lifestyle sports that people want to engage with. What's your thought on this boom and, how have you sought to stand out?
COVID was a huge catalyst. I saw it firsthand in Denver, we started the brand during COVID. We were working on it at the end of 2019, but launched in November of 2020, so we were building the brand like in our apartment in Denver while COVID was happening.
I've never seen such lively outdoor energy in Denver. During 2020 everybody was at parks, running, biking, skiing. That was a catalyst. And then you started to see all these brands pop up that were celebrating that culture and this cultural shift started to happen where it celebrated being a part of these different ecosystems. It became much more of a social scene to go skiing or go to the US Open.
Your point about running and tennis is super relevant. I think it's just starting to be celebrated more. People just want to be associated with it, whether or not they're really engaging in it deeply.
I see so many people wearing ski sweaters or things like that, but maybe they're, just wanting to go to Aspen to sit at the base and have a spritz. They’re not even planning to go skiing. I think that lifestyle aspect is a super interesting part of this transformation.
In terms of ensuring that we're standing out, we just stay focused on our North Star of bringing more women to the outdoors. It’s easy to lean into hype. But I think it's funny, I was talking to this investor the other day who mentioned, ‘I don't really do consumer or apparel because I hate the hype curve.’ He was saying that it's just so unpredictable around the brand that becomes super hypey and then has their downfall, and fails to sustain it long-term.
I want our team to think about what we are focused on: building something that has a lot of roots and is super sustainable and bigger than ourselves. Sometimes you have to forego some hypey things to get that.
Speaking of credibility. Some language you went to market with was around this idea of ‘Bye Bye Boys Club.’ How do you think that approach has been received? What feedback have you gotten?
We launched the brand with the campaign Bye Bye Boys Club. We've evolved the messaging because our mission is to bring more women to the outdoors, but also make it a team sport, making it feel accessible and approachable, like we're all getting out there together. That language cut through at the beginning. I'd say that now we're thinking about it more holistically. What are the true value props of our brand?
It’s been interesting, we’re finalizing a collaboration with a brand that has a male-dominated approach. But we're bringing like this really kind of fresh, fun, feminine energy to it. And there has been a bit of pushback on the tagline, Bye Bye Boys Club, because that inherently is negative, depending on how you take it.
Initially, the outdoor industry was a boys club. So I think for us, we're like, ‘How do we come in in a way that's just totally flipping this on its head?’ Being cheeky while also still trying to welcome all people into it.
I would say it's been well received when it's understood, Maybe when someone disagrees with it or doesn't get it, it's confusing. I think it's sticky. The evidence is brands in other categories, like golf, embracing that point of view.
I think what makes sense is speaking from a mentality more than a person. That’s what we were talking about in terms of that energy that can sometimes exist on the mountain that suggests if you don't show up a certain way you don't belong.
Right. It's a gear thing at the same time, because something that we have to overcome in the category that we're in is, especially with ski, is that if it's cute or feminine, it isn't technical. That's the perception.
That's something that we're constantly having to overcome. If we make a pink ski suit, it might have the exact same technical components as the Arctyrex jacket next to it. But because it is pink and has a belt it's not taken seriously. So that’s what we mean when we say goodbye to the boys club.
Can you talk about a best seller and why it's standing out in the market?
We have a capsule of bestsellers. We don't have a single hero product. We have five or six that are comparable in sales. That being said, one of our top sellers since day one is our Aston Jacket, the belted ski jacket. It makes you feel like a woman on the mountain versus something boxy and oversized. That's why it's been well received It’s identifiable. If you see it on the mountain, you're like, oh, that's a Halfdays jacket. Especially in a pop color. It ticks all the boxes of what you are aiming for.
What's next for Halfdays?
One big thing is product expansion. We're looking to our customers right now to understand: what is our core customer doing the rest of the year? What is she wanting to see from Halfdays?
We’re trying to balance the mountain roots that we came from with what else is our girl doing, even if off mountain. That’s going to be a big focus for us. That and refining our distribution strategy,
We have a store in Denver and have done popups. We’re figuring out what does owned retail look like for us over the next couple of years?
We also have some fun collaborations coming out in the next two years, which we're excited about.
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