We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Havelka recently and have shared our conversation below.
Stephanie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
As a competitive swimmer at the age of 14 I got really bored with the swimsuits that were offered to us as athletes. I had just started to recognize that I could express myself through clothing and hated the unflattering offerings of the competitive swimsuit market. So, I started sketching what I wanted to make then. Fast forward 20 years and 7 water sports later, I had MORE sketches in my “secret sketchbook” and over 200 swimsuits I had worn/saved over the years. Why did I do that you might ask? Because I wanted to remember what I liked and most certainly what I didn’t like. The “didn’t like” pile was so that I would always remember what NOT TO DO when I made my own brand.
It truly amazed me that the swimsuit market hadn’t evolved or innovated since my childhood and that is whenI had a major ah-ha moment! There is room for me and this is my time. BTW when you do 7 water sports, that really means that I have spent a lot of time in locker rooms listening to women I have trained and competed with b*tch about swimsuits. Not only was I disgruntled but so were they. I took notes.
When I was competing in Australia in outrigger canoeing, the top Aussie girls (I worked my butt off to get on that team!) always had new swimsuits to race in each race. I asked who was making these suits as they were not branded, in fact, I was told that they were made by a “lady”. Well, I asked if I could meet the “lady”. When I met her I was besides myself with jitters, I asked her if she could make a sample of one of the suits I had sketched, she said “yes, come back tomorrow”. That was the start of it, she took me under her wing and proceeded to teach me how to “engineer” an amazing swimsuit. She made 7 samples, I brought them back to the states, put them on my other top notch athlete friends for feedback. They were a huge hit! I immediately went back to Australia and continued on my journey to learning more and more about not only garment construction but how to produce it. BTW this “lady” was, and still is, a very decorated and celebrated swimsuit designer in all of Australia. WOW, lucky me, I was taught by the BEST.
I knew this would work, I just had a gut instinct. My first few times out selling my product I went to triathlons, surf competitions, openwater swims, volleyball tournaments and more. I wanted to be right in front of my target market, survey them and get feedback. This continued to confirm that I was on the right track. This was my start.
Stephanie , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a water sports athlete and to me swimwear is my part of equipment, it is GEAR to me. As an athlete I personally I have a ZERO TOLERANCE policy to crappy swimsuits that take my mind off of my game/training or competing. What I found over time is that NO WOMAN likes swimsuits that cause us grief. …yet, we tolerate it because that is what the market offers. Let me also ad in that women are CRAFTY, we will jury-rig up a garment to MAKE IT WORK for us. …what?! Yes, it is true. We suffer in silence always wondering if our swimsuits are where they are supposed to be, or if they have shifted and are now exposing us especially when we don’t want to be exposed. NOPE. I said NO MORE. What i am is a swimsuit engineer. My goal and purpose is to make the MOST DURABLE, BEST FUNCTIONING and ULTIMATELY FLATTERING active/athletic swimsuits on the market. My suits are made of the highest grade materials I can buy (Italian fabric), also made in small batches in the USA (downtown LA as a matter of fact).
As you can see, I solve this problem of “wondering where your swimsuit is, or is not”. I know there are women reading this right now who are nodding their heads….yes, we women tolerate non-functioning swimsuits for the sake of fashion all the time. My tribe is the mover and shaker. One who does not want to lay by the pool…that is fine and all, but that is not for everyone. Movers & Shakers are women who like to move, play a pick up game of beach volleyball, jump off boats, go romping in the waves, play with their littles, train in their sport or maybe compete. No matter what the activity a swimsuit should stay put so that YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT without fretting the garment. I call that FREEDOM…..oh, and let’s throw in the fact women want to LOOK GOOD TOO. We should not have to settle for dowdy, unflattering suits just because we want to be a mover & a shaker.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
To me the journey of entrepreneurship is the journey of self because as you grow, your business will grow, however, in the same breathe as your business grows, you must grow. That is one of my favorite sayings….cause it is true, at each stage of the business I had to grow to take on the NEW things I had never done before.
A story of my resilience : every time I thought this is just too much, I can’t go on….I would do what is known as surrender. I decided to surrender my business to God and His vast Universe. What does that mean? That means that I decided to stop stressing and using my ego to force things to happen. In the “letting go and letting God” I found that the FAITH I had to exercise was where the real truth was. I learned when “get out of the way” and let God always move mountains that only He can, things ALWAYS work out better than I could have expected.
To be honest, sometimes it took a total disaster to recognize I had not leaned into God and my FAITH…that is called the “school of hard knocks”. …each lesson was followed up with this knowing that I am on purpose and to trust the process. Enjoy the journey instead of “making it hurry up”.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In the beginning I was manufacturing my products in Australia and having them shipped up here. I started to notice that communication overseas (even with English speaking peeps like Aussies) and odd time zones, that communication was getting difficult. When product arrived and there was a mistake, because I wasn’t there on site, because I didn’t know about it turned out that mistake was done on 300 plus garments and was very costly to fix. This was a nightmare and I was becoming impatient. I felt I needed to pivot from this way of manufacturing my products. I also didn’t have a great understanding of duties at the time either. Shipping lead times were long and drawn out, so I began to feel this strong sense to have the manufacturing be closer so that if questions or problems came up I could zip over to the manufacturing facility and handle them ASAP. I also wanted to manufacture in small batches, which is not common overseas either. The pivot to manufacture in LA was my answer. It was only an hour drive and I could easily and quickly avoid big mistakes that cost a lot of money and time. I could run my smaller limited edition batches, it made sense. Lastly, I always wanted my products to be Made In The USA as well. Lastly, I did have to learn how to find a manufacturer, so there it was again, another opportunity for me to learn and grow. It took some time, but I found a new manufacturers here in California.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.sportkini.com
- Instagram: Sportkini
- Facebook: Sportkini
- Linkedin: KANDU SPORT COMPANY – SPORTKINI