We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Raquel Ponce. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Raquel below.
Raquel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?
Legging customization is a feature I have yet to see in premium athleisure wear, so I’m proud to say that not only does Miami Fitwear offer athleisure wear in a wide range of sizes (from XXS-4X), our leggings are totally customizable. Because we custom make your leggings to order (right here in the U.S!), you can choose your inseam length (from crop to tall) and add inner or side pockets or both!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I was living in Miami and signed up for a hot yoga class. I was overweight, already maybe feeling a bit self-conscious, but also noticed how aside from being the largest body in the room, all the other ladies had beautiful and fun leggings, making my plain black leggings pale in comparison. After the class when I went to look for some of the styles of leggings I had seen in class, I noticed many of the brands didn’t offer the size I needed. So, as I lost weight, I started buying and trying various brands of leggings I had admired on others, only to find that when I actually started practicing in them, they were uncomfortable, or I had to constantly make adjustments to avoid my belly spilling over in downward dog, or my backside being on display in child’s pose. The constant attention to my outfit was a distraction to my practice, and I found I could not allow myself to be fully present. Expressing this frustration to my husband, who works in textiles, he suggested we see what we liked and disliked about other brands and to build my own. I saw the lack of plus sizes in athleisure wear so I built my brand around inclusivity and body positivity. We offer sizes XXS-4X and legging inseams in lengths crop to tall so that anyone can find their perfect pair of cute leggings at Miami Fitwear.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Miami Fitwear was one of the first to offer reusable face coverings during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. After listening to a friend who was also frustrated at the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) available to the healthcare industry, we began using scrap material to make dust masks and offered them to our customers. After the demand for our dust masks outgrew our small team’s ability to hand make each mask, we redirected our efforts to design, create, and distribute protective masks. To date, Miami Fitwear has been able to donate masks to First Responders and Health Care Workers and sold over 100,000 masks.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
Part of what makes Miami Fitwear so special is the customer base. We have an incredibly supportive online community where Miami Fitwear lovers have access to each other for fit questions, styling input, and to me, the founder and CEO of the brand. Some members have met in this online forum and friendships have been formed and even a few meet ups have taken place. I think that also makes us pretty unique as a brand, for people to forge relationships over something like a pair of pants…it’s pretty amazing to see those relationships being built and this supportive community really bands together to give advice, or even occasional shout outs like those look great on you! I try to maintain open communication to not only answer questions they may have but for continuous product feedback that I use as an aid in determining priority and possibility of future products and fabrics. A frequent request from our customer base has been leggings with tighter compression so we tested different fabrics and designs to create our Miami Peach Contour Collection using our new Sports Performance fabric. It’s feedback from our tight-knit online community that keeps us going!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://miamifitwear.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miamifitwear/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miamifitwear/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@miamifitwear
Image Credits
Olive Marketing Firm, Greater Pharr Chamber of Commerce, Ricardo Ayala