Congratulations to Sally Bergesen and the team at Oiselle Running! Sally was just named one of Seattle's top 25 innovators! We already know how special Oiselle is to women's running...now the whole world does too! Here is the article by Myke Folger for Seattle Business Monthly. (PS: Don't forget to enter the Fall Training In Style contest to win a pair of Oiselle running shorts! The contest ends October 31st!)
Running in Style: Sally Bergesen, Founder, Oiselle Running Inc.
A few years ago, Sally Bergesen got fed up with running marathons in high-waisted shorts that didn’t fit well and looked even worse.
Image: Sally Bergesen, Courtesy Seattle Business Times
The longtime distance runner decided to ask her friend, Liz Stahl, who is now Oiselle’s operations director, what she thought of their running outfits. They both agreed: The clothing was lousy.
Following her instincts, the branding strategist and writer decided to launch Seattle-based Oiselle Running Inc. in 2006.
“I wanted to apply the skills I had honed in branding and naming to an area that was intensely personal for me, which was running,” she says while sitting in the Greenlake Starbucks with a slice of banana bread and drip coffee she bought using a giftcard a friend gave her for her 40th birthday.
Bergesen’s innovation is in the shorts; they are low-rise with a comfortable liner and a fashionable look. She designed the shorts based on how she felt as a competitive runner and as a typical woman. She used her running friends as her focus group, and there was unanimous support for the shorts. After substantial financial backing from friends and family, Oiselle took flight.
While the private company isn’t releasing financial results, it appears Bergesen’s business instincts have been on target. The Oiselle line has grown from being sold in six stores in the spring of 2007 to 40 stores across the country this year. During that time, sales have jumped 263 percent. Oiselle is now setting its sights on the international market.
The product line will be available in Japan this fall, and Bergesen plans to enter the Canadian and European markets in 2009.
Still, there are problems being a small player in a market dominated by the likes of Nike, including the fact that textile suppliers scoffed at her microscopic fabric orders.
Bergesen needed only one sample dye lot to complete her entire line of clothing during her first season.
“I thought that was pretty innovative,” says the Seattle resident and mother of two. She also ignored the fashion industry’s tendency to declare what colors will be in fashion in each season. “Lesley [Feldman, her designer] and I just pick colors that we like,” she says.
Instinct is essential for innovation, Bergesen adds. Instinct is the product of experience, and she applies it in great doses when making decisions. She doesn’t like the lumbering bureaucracy of most corporate cultures and demands gazelle-like speed when running Oiselle.
Bergesen knows as the company grows, maintaining the ability to make quick decisions will become an issue. But she also believes that the personality of a company stems from its CEO; if she maintains a desire to flee from bureaucracy, then odds are the business will follow.
As the founder and president of Oiselle, Bergesen will continue to run, anywhere from six to 20 miles at a time.
That is when she gets her best ideas. Currently, those thoughts include next spring’s new line of GoodForm sports bras and shimmels (or sleeveless tops).
“Innovation is easy,” Bergesen says with her characteristic confidence. “People have ideas all the time. It’s the execution that will define you as a true innovator.” --Myke Folger
