A NEW shop in east Belfast seeks to to bring high-end and luxury activewear to women in Ireland for the first time.
The e-commerce start-up OMMactive is the brainchild of Mel Boyle who is convinced he has found a gap in the market.
Mr Boyle, whose previous successes included running the online arm of jewellery chain Argento created the brand with his wife Niamh.
She had been designing nature inspired yoga wear experimentally and incorporated images Mel had created through his personal hobby, nature photography.
“We set about finding some other brands, luxury brands aimed specifically at the higher end of the female, yoga, pilates and running market," he said.
They discovered that high end female fitness wear brands were simply not available outside London.
“Nobody in Ireland was doing this.”
But it was big in Australia.
The idea developed that he should open a shop in Belfast as the springboard for online marketing to the world, selling “athleisure” active wear for the new enthusiasms of pilates and yoga.
Mr Boyle used his retail experience to secure one of the world’s fastest growing female luxury active wear brands.
“Our lead brand in our new store is Australia’s iconic active wear brand Lorna Jane Active," he said.
This is a brand that women want. There are now 170 Lorna Jane Active stores in Australia and over 50 in the US. It is exploding in popularity.
“Lorna Jane is famous around the world for the body sculpting designs. With activewear crossing the boundary into fashion, women find that Lorna Jane is the perfect look for active living. You can wear these clothes on the street and look good," said Mr Boyle.
“At OMMactive, we love the Lorna Jane concept ‘Move, nourish, believe’ focusing on the three pillars of good health."
OMMactive opened on Belmont Road in east Belfast last month.
“Our online presence is growing right across the UK and Ireland”, said Mr Boyle.
And people don’t just go into the shop to buy the most stylish leisure clothing.
“People love the OMMactive 'one stop shop' idea where they can buy their active beauty, organic protein, luxury self-tanning and activewear all in one place," he added.
