Meet the Online Women’s Clothing Brand That Has Completely Ditched Traditional Sizing, and Created a New Way to Choose Your Workout gear.meet the Online Women’s Clothing Brand That Has Completely Ditched Traditional Sizing, and Created a New Way to Choose Your Workout Gear.
“I’ve been called crazy before, but we felt so strongly that the traditional way of sizing was wrong. We just had to do something abut it.” says Kortney Olson, CEO of GRRRL Clothing. “We simply just don’t DO “sizes”. The old way of sizes was created by a man in the department of agriculture nearly one hundred years ago, using a survey that didn’t represent the variety of body types, ethnicity or genetics of women 100 years ago. Let alone today.”
American entrepreneur Olson is an unmitigated force of nature. Australia’s first female arm-wrestling champion, the creator of Kamp Konfidence – short, skills-based residential workshops tackling the issues limiting teenage girls – and a highly successful former sales manager for car dealerships, hers is a Hollywood-ready backstory of outsider’s empathy, brute determination and unsinkable charisma that’s now fully coalesced in her female championing athleisure e-brand, GRRRL Clothing. As Olson says: “It’s not just that the sizing itself that’s wrong, it’s the message itself that is absolutely toxic. We are pressured by society as women to look one way, which is almost impossible for 99% of women. And if we don’t fit that shape, then we are told there is something wrong with us. SO we just decided to throw away the labels of extra large, double extra large. And focus on the amazing things our bodies can do rather than the label created by some dude nearly 100 years ago.”
Olson says that this misrepresentation, has gone hand in hand with fashion and sportswear brands using models that represent less than 2% of bodies to create untold damage to the self esteem of girls as young as 3 years old. And why as many as 40% of 3 year old girls want a different body type. The results of all of this combined are horrific.
- 1 in 5 teenage girls will experience depression before they reach adulthood, with the majority connected to body image and self esteem
- 7 in 10 teenage girls believe that they are not good enough or don’t measure up in some way related to their looks
- Over 70 percent of girls age 14 to 17 avoid normal daily activities, such as attending school, when they feel bad about their looks.
- Eating disorders are the 3rd most common chronic illness in young females.
“We want to make a change to this and one way we will do that is to get rid of sizing.” says Olson. ” Even the names of traditional sizes make us feel there is something wrong with us. Did you know the AVERAGE woman in the USA would wear an extra large or double extra large in some sports brands? And that our smaller and bigger sisters are being told to shop elsewhere.. at the back of the store or being segmented into other stereotypes like “petite” or “plus-size”? How does it make sense that 98% of sportswear is made to fit less than 25% of female bodies? And why close to 70% of women can’t even shop at the mainstream sportswear brands.”
“We think it’s time to call bullshit on the clothing industry. And their model photoshop. Their unrealistic body stereotypes. And making every woman feel like anything than an extra small is an abnormality. We don’t put clothes for our fuller bodied sisters at the back of the store. Or fat shame our employees. Like other brands. We are women. Loud. Can you hear us?” she says.
Instead of sizes GRRRL has a range of 10 world class athletes and customers just pick the athlete you identify with… from Brionii a world class bjj bruiser to Sam a world record holding powerlifter…. Heidi the world armwrestling champ or Ali the USA representative olympic weightlifter. GRRRL insists their focus is on the amazing things our bodies can do taher than the unrepresentative stereotypes created in the department of agriculture.
“It might take you a minute to get used to the way we do things. But we hope you appreciate why we are doing it. And we are pretty confident that you will get a better fit. And a happier wear out of the process. It’s a pretty big gamble for us as an online store. But we know that women will get it.” Olson says.