As part of CGR’s Women Lead month, I have invited women led brands to share with us their story about starting a brand in a male dominant industry. In addition, I’ve asked what what their challenges where, how the cycling community can support them, and what they are doing to bring representation to this industry. Through their stories I hope to get you thinking about how we too can support these women led businesses to bring more representation to this industry.
Today, I’ve invited Laura Buono, founder of Hummingbird Athletic, to share with us her story of starting a women’s specific and unisex cycling apparel brand. To do something great, there are often challenges of starting a small business in this industry. Challenges many of us experience when starting out in cycling. Laura’s story and message goes beyond the challenges though, her determination to include and represent cyclists of all identities and abilities holds the simple story of bringing people together simply for the fun of the ride.
When starting out, did you have any fears or challenges about starting a women’s cycling apparel brand?
When I started this company, I can honestly say my fears weren’t because I was a woman in a male dominated industry. It was built and created to support the growing population of women in cycling. My challenges were more or less learning how to run a small business, financial management, and sticking to a core foundation to produce high quality, ethically made apparel.
What do you think the cycling community can do support women led brands?
The best thing we can do as a community to support good solid brands and small business’ is to spread the word. Buy something, try it out and give honest feedback; because the only way we can improve our gear and progress as a community is from feedback. Many small business’ rely on social media as their only means of advertisement, so it’s super important that if we want to grow and make our mark in this world, we share, like, comment, and support. Let’s get our faces and our brands out there!
How do you hope you brand can bring representation to cycling?
On another note, I’m not about to exclude anyone (male or female) on this journey or in this industry. We often talk about male vs. female, who’s dominating what and yes I agree. The fight will always be to put women up there with men and be treated equally in this community. But look, most of us are not professional riders, we’re out here riding to have fun, build friendships, exercise and stay healthy, challenge ourselves, and spend time with people you care about…the list goes on. I want my brand to reflect that.
How do you aim to include cyclists of all identities, ages, abilities?
I lead group rides that are open to both men and women cyclists who are there to get a good sweat on, but also have fun. I determine our route depending on who shows up and accommodate to the level of cyclists at that moment. It’s a great great group of supportive people. All in all, just be cool. Woman, man, trans, or however you identify, be cool. We’re not here to compete or show off, we’re here to ride. Just. Be. Cool.
What are your next goals with your brand?
I’m starting to expand my brand to include men as well. A lot of our jersey cuts that we use are actually unisex. It’s kind of an on going development that seems to be doing really well. As Hummingbird develops, I would like to be more gender neutral. I mean obviously bib-shorts serve a specific purpose for our different ‘bits’ but other than that, I would like there to be no difference. We tested out a new UNISEX cut with our pineapple jersey, and we received amazing positive feedback. So, we’ll see where it takes us. Our Lycra obsession is on a new level!
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