Hi there and welcome to the Raaxo. blog! Thank you so much for taking an interest in what is happening in this new element of the Raaxo. brand.
The plan is that this will be a weekly hello and give an insight into the who, what, where, when and whys of Raaxo. Along with chatting about topics in the industry that influenced the goals of this budding little business.
The person behind the keyboard is Annie Carey. Hiii! I am the Founder and Owner of Raaxo. Though I guess my roles are a little more than that. You see the TikTok's/Reels going around where people share all the roles they assume within their business? Yea, I am one of those, a many hat wearing unpaid (so far) employee (doesn't that sound sooo glamorous?). Thing is, in here I'm going to be real with you all, I've had many highs and the highs are amazing but I've made plenty of poor decisions and had many downs, meltdowns, freak outs, imposter syndrome attacks and tears shed along the way. I guess over the next few blog posts I will share a bit of that journey with you.
We're coming towards the end of 2022 and I think it's nice to reflect on these past couple of years, celebrate how far Raaxo. has come but also to learn from the past decisions and move into 2023 ready to reach for the stars and start fulfilling some more of the Raaxo. vision.
But for today I'm going to go back to the very start and think about:
"Why did I want to start an activewear brand?"
It wasn't that one day out of the blue or for no real reason I thought "I'm going to start a brand". It was an accumulation of disappointments, heartache and I guess a bit of self loathing from not fitting the criteria for the big brands at the time. Very few stocked above a UK 16, those that did were either £80+ or were of poor quality and the fabrics weren't really good enough/forgiving when having to stretch over a size UK 22-24 body. I was just at the start of my own fitness journey and felt like I was falling at the first hurdle. I had just started going to the gym, was completely out of my comfort zone. The first pairs of leggings that I wore to the gym were the £7 cotton jobbies you get out of Tesco. Totally see-through, totally not practical for the gym, the fabric did not like to be sweat in and I was totally self conscious about who was going to see my Granny panties on every occasion. So for the most part I hid at the back of the class near the door but at least I was there!
Fast forward a little, I had lost a little weight and got myself a few pairs of Primark leggings (totally see-through and fell down every two seconds). I also got a pair of Nike leggings from ASOS, they weren't the best in that they fell down so was constantly pulling at them and adjusting, they were a bit see-through but they were £35-ish so for me they were good enough and made me feel like I some-what fit in. They were a safety blanket and a little confidence boost. I had only been going to the gym for a couple of months but it had already changed my mentality so much. I was enjoying going!
I went to Pilates, Aqua Aerobics (where I splashed around with some lovely older ladies) and as my confidence & fitness level improved I found a love for BodyCombat, BodyPump and Zumba. Then BOOM the gym closed. March 2020, the first (dare I bring it up) lockdown had been put in place. So instead of stopping and giving up I started working out on my patio and started documenting it on Instagram. It started out as an accountability thing but then people started coming and watching what I was doing and they were finding some inspiration of their own, so I kept going.
It was kind of a snowball effect from there. I was working out daily, had bought leggings from the Tesco active range, ASOS and numerous other places, was still experiencing the same struggles of being a bigger size. I was seeing folks on Instagram churning out their own brands that only carried to a size L. Getting disappointed because I once again didn't fit the mould to buy their range and one day thought to myself, surely there is a way to do this that you can get bigger sizes, accommodate more people and also provide high quality leggings in the process.
I started doing some research and quickly found out it wasn't that simple to create a more "inclusive" brand. Thus the journey to Raaxo. truly began and I will continue the Raaxo. story in the next post.
If you made it this far, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking an interest in Raaxo.'s roots and I can't wait to share more with you over the coming weeks. As a small business, every like, share, recommendation and purchase is really appreciated! Thank you so much again and I would love to hear what you thought of this first post!
Lots of love,
Annie x