We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jamila Graham. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jamila below.

Jamila, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of my company and brand is NDUR ATHLETICS. NDUR is pronounced like endure but with a play on words. With NDUR, the N stands for Never, D stands for Doubt and the UR stands for yoURself. So anytime someone reads or says NDUR, they also say “Never Douby yoURself”. This is something that resonated with me on so many levels and in different stages of my life so much that it became my tagline. I can recall my journey of bringing the brand to life I wanted to give up and just quit when something didn’t go as planned or felt out of reach. I had to remind myself that I needed to NDUR and that I am my brand. With that as my focus, I was able to redirect my efforts and bring NDUR to life to share with others to help them NDUR and never doubt themselves.

NDUR Athletics is more than an active brand it’s the feeling of accomplishment and confidence. Whether it’s a tough workout, a project for work, starting a company, a task for school, going into an interview for a promotion, or a new job; NDUR because you should never doubt yourself.

Jamila, 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?

My name is Jamila Graham and I am the owner of NDUR Athletics a women’s athleisure brand. I have over 20 years of retail management experience under my belt. I’ve run stores from high-end luxury boutiques to multi-million dollar big box retail stores. I went to school to study Global Business and Management in hopes of being a corporate buyer for a luxury retailer. After reflecting on all the years of work and the knowledge that I gained I wanted to do something for myself and something that I could share with the world so I started a women’s online boutique that catered to the working women. I had that online boutique for two years and we did okay but it wasn’t me, I wasn’t passionate about it the products that I sold. So I made the decision to close that company and I went back to the drawing board and NDUR Athletics  was created.

In 2020, I started to plan out what NDUR would look like and what it would stand for and by March of 2023, we were able to launch NDUR. NDUR is an online-based company but whenever we can partner with local gyms, businesses, or other vending events for pop-ups we love to be there to connect with our local community. Our product line consists of leggings, sports bras, shorts, tank tops, rompers, and hats. Right now we carry sizes Small to Extra, Extra Large in hopes of carrying up to size 4X to be a more size-inclusive brand.

As a mom to two athletes, I find myself in the gym a ton, if not for the kids, for myself. So I live in activewear except for the rare occasion when I need to dress up fancy. I found my passion and that is what has helped me be successful with NDUR. When you do what you love and love what you do, it really does all come together just right. And when I’m at my pop-up events connecting with people we make great connections further building the community.

When selecting the styles and fits I was very intentional and had my customers in mind. I am a women-owned and operated company that caters to women, so I know and understand the importance of fit, function, and fashionable. Our customers love the softness of our leggings and the comfortable fit of our bras.

I am most proud of the connections that we’ve been able to make with our customers and the community. In life we naturally doubt ourselves and I originally questioned if people would even like what NDUR has to offer. After getting genuine positive feedback and encouraging comments on our products, I knew I got it right. And this reminded me that I am my brand and that I should NDUR (never doubt yourself).

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

NDUR is solely self-funded to this point. In addition to running NDUR, I also work a full-time job so anytime I received a bonus I would use that to build capital to fund my business. I was able to save a reasonable amount of funds and I started small, I now use proceeds from sales to restock inventory. When I first started I wanted to start a lot larger than what I initially started with but I had to work with what I had and scale from there. It took discipline but I did it.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients for me has been our pop-up events. Getting out in the community and connecting with people face-to-face has been the best for us. When we get to engage with people and share the meaning of the brand it’s something that everyone can relate to and they love it. When customers get the chance to see our product up close and touch it they love it. Recently we had a pop-up event and we shared the brand name and what it means to some of the guests in attendance moments later I hear them sharing the brand name and the meaning and how much they loved it. Unknowingly to them, I heard the entire conversation and it was just so heartwarming to hear people talking about my brand and sharing it with others. When you are an online business online its a little harder to connect so it is important for us to have community events as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ndurathletics.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/ndur_athletics
• Facebook: Facebook.com/ndurathletics

Image Credits
Timeless Present