Building a Brand with Gabriella Carvalho

Written by Kaitlyn de Boda

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I caught up to my classmate, Gabriella Carvalho, in early November to discuss her exciting enterprise. Though she’s only 19, her business savvy, polite demeanour, and experience as a competitive rhythmic gymnast leaves no room for wondering how she’s been able to start her athleisure brand, Oak Athleisure, from the ground up. What began as a COVID project is now a budding Edmontonian business promising its wearers stability, strength, and individuality in its pieces. Sitting in the University of Alberta’s Rutherford Library, Carvalho and I dive into the realities of creating a brand, exciting firsts, and advice to other young females considering becoming entrepreneurs.

Kaitlyn:

First of all, thank you for coming to see me. It was really exciting because I remember speaking to you in class and you mentioned your brand. I'm like, what brand? And then I found your Instagram and was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so cool!”

Gabriella:

Honestly, I advocate for it. If you're passionate about something and you have the means to do so or even to get the experience to do so, you should totally do it.

Kaitlyn:

So how did [Oak Athleisure] start up?

Gabriella:

Me being a high level rhythmic gymnast for 13 years, I would always spend my summers training in Bulgaria.

When I went with my mom, I would always get clothing made for me. Originally it started off with me having very different body proportions —because I feel like with rhythmic gymnastics you get a lot of girls who are very tall, very lean, but then there's so many different body types that vary, right? For me in particular, I have a super tiny waist and long arms, so nothing ever fits.

That, paired with being outside of the country, I wanted to get clothes that would have a bit of that, “Canada vibe” or heritage to it so the girls that were in Bulgaria would know where I came from and what team I'm representing when I train outside of the country.

So it started with that and then after the first, second year and third year that I went, I noticed that different girls would ask me, like, “Oh, where did you get this made or where can I buy it? Or can you send it to Bulgaria?” and whatnot.

After I got that feedback that people were interested in [my clothing brand], I thought I could do something with it. I continued to wear those training tops to training once I came back to Edmonton and then girls from my club started asking where I got it from.

Fast forward to, I want to say a year, of not thinking about this kind of project or hobby, right before COVID my mom was like, “You should do something with it. You're getting feedback that a lot of people are interested. You have the targeted audience that you would be selling to. Why not start it? Things are slow.”

So, I want to say it was during COVID when I really decided that I wanted to do something with it. It was very slow initially. I think having my mom to kind of push me and give me that reassurance that if I had something that I thought was fun and could put my passions into that it would be successful. That was really important because I don’t think not having that push from her would have led me to establishing a small business.

Kaitlyn:

Going off of that, would you say that your mom helped you through a lot of it?

Gabriella:

I would say in terms of initiating interest, she did. I had a few other people during the process of establishing the business who helped me. But I think really peaking that interest and getting me thinking about creating something was reserved to her.

Kaitlyn:

And the name of your brand is Oak Athleisure. Where did you get the name from?

Gabriella:

Ok, so I had multiple name ideas. Some of them, of course, didn't work very well because I think when people are choosing a name for a business, they want something that's personal but also that is kind of trendy, you know, it'll be well known, easy to memorize.

Initially I wanted to name my brand Motiva and it was going to be “motivate athletics”. That would be the catch phrase, but then the Movati gym opened up by my house and I was like, that's illegal. [Laughs]I do not want to cross that road. Then the second name I thought of was Glam, but Glam turned out to be too much catered towards makeup and the beauty industry. So I had to really brainstorm what specific area I wanted to target because it was not only clothing, but specifically athletic clothing and [the brand name] had to be more in tune with that.

And then one night, my brother and my sister-in-law came over to our house and I needed help. So we were brainstorming and we were deciding what names, what catch phrases I would want, or if there's any like, secondary name component that I would want for [the brand name]. So fast forward to my brand now, it's athleisure.

Then we kind of focused the idea around our family name. My last name is Carvalho. It’s a Portuguese last name that translates to “oak” or “oak tree”. Because the oak symbolizes longevity, wisdom and endurance, I thought that I could send my brand’s core values around the oak tree.

Then the hard part after was coming up with a name that was eligible for business standards because your legal business name has to be something that's not occupied. So even though we knew that like OAK + FORT or Frank and Oak existed, the secondary name just had to be something that wasn't already out there. So, I didn't want “athletic”, I didn't want “sportswear”, I don't want “clothing wear”. And one night I just remembered that the word “athleisure” exists, and I was like, wow, boom! That's perfect. Because right now, even though I'm doing workout wear only, in the future, athleisure wear can translate to just comfy clothes if I wanted to expand.

Photo: Gabriella Carvalho pictured left

Kaitlyn:

And I think that even though you started this after COVID, I feel like [the COVID-19 Pandemic] would be a great time for athleisure, too, because a lot of people were looking in that direction for comfort at home, or even if they're on the go doing small errands. I think that feeling still carries on to where we are right now, where people have come back to going about their daily life, but they still want to be comfortable.

Gabriella:

(Nodding) No kidding. For sure.

Kaitlyn:

How old are you?

Gabriella:

19 years old.

Kaitlyn:

OK, so you're 19 years old. You're a student taking five course loads, is that correct?

Gabriella:

Correct, yes.

Kaitlyn:

OK. So then what's it like running a brand while you're doing all of this?

Gabriella:

I think the difference between when I first started and where I am now with the brand is probably my shift in priorities. School has always been my focus, but I think while I was establishing the business, I devoted a lot more effort to it. And I think that's normal too, right? With anything, especially when you launch a business, you need to make sure that all the fundamental components of your business (your website, your shipping strategies, your form of payments) are all ready to go before you launch.

And I think compared to now, it's almost been set aside a little bit. So even though I turn to my business, when I get sales, it becomes more of a form of trying to maintain the business rather than promoting, promoting, promoting. I think there are periods where I'll be more engaged in that promotion and then a little bit more reserved with managing and making sure I'm still doing advertising and whatnot.

I think something that will be beneficial is now that I'm coaching gymnastics twice a week, I'll be able to also promote my clothing to that gymnastics community. So this year it was really in tune with my inner circle: my friends, and my friends who know people. I think branching out is something that I look forward to within this next year. Being able to design clothing for gymnastics clubs maybe even across the province, even if it's not an official training tracksuit... it could be just additional clothing wear that can be offered for the gymnasts to purchase every year.

Photo: Gabriella Carvalho pictured left

Kaitlyn:

One of Girl Up’s core missions is to uplift and empower women and girls, so what I want to ask you is, did you find any challenges or barriers when you were starting your business, specifically relating to you being a woman?

Gabriella:

I think at the community level, no. But I had guy friends in my inner circle, who would jokingly say “oh, I'm going to do that too...I'm going to start a business too and I'm going to make it happen.” Nothing happened. They didn't do anything. They said it just for the sake of saying it.

But I think this can also translate to the general population where they think it's easy. Although the design aspect, creating the clothing wear and establishing the website might have been really easy compared to other steps, it's a lot of work and it's almost like marketing. If you don't consistently devote that time to expand your audience, people are not going to come to you. You have to go to the people.

But yeah, other than that, I think a lot of former teammates were really uplifting. Luckily, I had the opportunity to be in a sport that was already very women-oriented, and a lot of women empowerment was the foundation of that. So, I think surrounding myself with those people really made a difference, especially reassuring me that I could do it and that it didn't matter what other people said as long as I believed in myself.

Kaitlyn:

That's really beautiful. Now zooming out and not just relating to your identity; what was a really big obstacle in setting up your brand, or what was the hardest challenge you faced when putting it together?

Gabriella:

For me initially it was separating myself from other businesses. I think that initial change of mindset to recognize like “Oh yeah, Lululemon is this multimillion-dollar company and then there's me smack dab in the middle -- no customers, just starting type of thing. I think that was difficult because anything I strive to do, I want to do it to the best of my ability and to start from zero is something that not a lot people tell you about: not having the experience, not knowing where to start or how to get there. Nowadays, it's about who you know and having those contacts to be able to facilitate interactions within your business.

Then I would also say deciding where I wanted my clothing to get manufactured, because then it also took into consideration how much money I was willing to put into my business. Although I really wanted to produce locally and use the knowledge and materials that a local seamstress had, it was just not feasible in the long run. Once you think about that big picture of who you're eventually going to be selling to, it requires a certain level of quality.

I ended up choosing a good manufacturer, but I think if I were to launch new items, I would probably try to get a local Canadian supplier and that's largely just because of shipping costs. Something I would consider the next time around is making sure I do a little more research into the businesses that are already in the country where I live.

Kaitlyn:

It has been a little over one year [since your brand launched]. Just looking back on that one year, what are you most proud of?

Gabriella:

I think for me, I have this really happy memory of my launch party. [Smiles] I did it on October 22nd, which is crazy because I remember it being very rushed and last minute. I was completing exams and I still had exams after but it was a really uplifting and humbling experience for me. I was able to recognize that there are other things that I could do, and succeed in. Seeing a whole bunch of different people throughout different stages of my life being able to come and support me at that event was really rewarding.

That was really big. And then also having my first sale was a huge experience and it's actually funny because my first sale was outside of the province. Because I traveled lots for gymnastics competitions, I had a friend that I met in Quebec for a gymnastics camp (she was from New Brunswick). She was the first one to order.

Kaitlyn:

You seem very knowledgeable about business even though Oak Athleisure is a relatively new company. What advice would you give to somebody who would be interested in creating their own brand or something like this in general?

Gabriella:

I would say the first thing you have to consider is your targeted audience: what's already available on the market and how is your product going to be different?

I think making sure that you have enough time to dedicate to your project or business idea is important because, like I said, I dedicated a lot of time last year prior to the launch of Oak Athleisure and I think had I not dedicated as much time, it would have taken much longer to initiate the business.

I think it's useful to know that there are people out there to help you. I had the opportunity of working at a company called AltaML two summers ago. AltaML works on designing solutions to help people and they have a big business aspect within the organization that I think contributed to my thinking of what a business should look like.

Kaitlyn:

Great. Lastly, what is the best way to get in contact with you or follow Oak Athleisure's journey?

Photo: Gabriella Carvalho

Gabriella:

Instagram is probably the best, @oakathleisure. My website is https://www.oakathleisure.com/ but those initial updates will come from Instagram, then transition to the website for countdown to launches and business updates.

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