Proudly SA brand Positive Pants is all about functional, high-quality active-wear for women

Retail 30 June 2021

Local South African brand Positive Pants first launched in the country in April 2018 by co-founders and sisters Monie Freeme and Roxie van der Venter.

( Image: Co-founders Roxie Van de Venter and Monie Fremee wearing their Boss Lady leggings.)

Their story began when Monie wanted to create some sort of passion project that would assist her in creating a passive stream of income. She then decided to share the idea with her sister Roxie.

"While working with family can sometimes be seen as a taboo or bad idea, we personally believe that the trust and understanding most
siblings share with each other (especially with most sisters) makes them the ideal business partners! As two sisters who
have been pretty close throughout our entire lives, Monie decided to share this idea with Roxie, as she could not think of a better person to go into business with than her own sister," the sisters said in response to emailed questions sent to then by Guzzle.

"We both toyed with a few different options, from a baby clothing boutique, to an online stationery store, but ultimately our exposure to the fitness industry and our passion for health and wellness prompted the creation of the brand and business that you have come to know and love today."

"Throughout our years of training together, and eventually competing in our first body building competition together, there was one thing that really stood out for us at the time and that was that there were very few affordable gym clothes available on the market that catered for all body shapes and sizes which made you look and feel good and that were squat-proof, of course."

Their brand was then born, and they wanted to create a brand that would provide women with functional, attractive, high-quality activewear that catered for ALL body types, not just supermodel runway figures.

When asked where the name Positive Pants came from, the sisters told Guzzle that it came to them by chance.

"Monie actually stumbled across a sign that read “Put on your Positive Pants” one afternoon while she was browsing in a small décor shop with her husband, Rob. He gestured jokingly towards the sign, “Hey, what about Positive Pants?”, said the sisters.

"Monie just lit up and immediately called Roxie - and both agreed that the phrase of “Putting on your Positive Pants” perfectly encapsulated what we wanted to achieve with our brand, both literally and figuratively."

The sisters added that the name perfectly fits their brand promise, which was and remains to uplift and empower women across South Africa to embrace and love the bodies that they have, in order for them to lead a life of confidence and self-love.

Monie and Roxie told Guzzle that they had many challenges when starting up their business, but the biggest one was investing money to upskill themselves.

" One of the biggest challenges we came to learn as a start-up company, was the need for us to invest money and time into upskilling ourselves when it came to starting and managing a website, running an e-commerce platform, and overall – broadening our own skill sets, especially when it came to anything digital-related. When you’re an entrepreneur who has just started your journey, budgets and capital are very limited, and so you just don’t have the money to outsource these types of functions to external parties, which leaves you to do it yourself."

"The biggest ‘drawback’ with this is more so the time-consuming nature of taking things like digital marketing courses, as in the back of your mind – you know there are more pressing matters that are taking a back seat."

Positive Pants first launched their brand which featured 8 prints in full-length leggings, all of which were advertised and marketed as activewear.

"However, as your season's change and your audience widen, your product range needs to adapt. So, as the warmer months came in, we added a variety of lengths to our range. A year later, our little poppets range was launched. Over this period, we also started shifting our offering of leggings from activewear to leisurewear," the sisters told Guzzle.

(Image: The Positive Pants Poppets Range.)

In 2020, we announced the launch of our leisurewear sets, which have been a great addition to the Positive Pants family.

Positive Pants said that their most popular item is their leggings, primarily due to their versatility.

"However, if we were to be more specific - the variety of sizing for our leggings (which current caters for sizes 14 to 18) proved to be hugely popular with our #sisterhoodofpositivepants."

"For us at Positive Pants, this shows we have achieved one of our most crucial brand promises, which is to be an all-inclusive company that caters for women of all shapes and sizes and empowers them to love every inch of their bodies," said the sisters.

There are still many other products on the horizon, however, proper research and development are required to ensure we are positively happy with the end product. As we grow in both capacity, resource and capital, so as will our product ranges.

Many local businesses have suffered major losses due to COVID-19, when Guzzle asked how Positive Pants had been impacted by this, they said they were very fortunate as it had minimal impact on their operations.

"As an e-commerce, online business, we are in a fortunate position in the sense that COVID-19 has had minimal impact on our business operations. On the contrary, COVID-19 has actually acted as an accelerant for us. Because we are one of a few fully-fledged, local, online boutique stores - lockdown (and in particular – hard lockdown) proved to be some of our best months, as more and more women across South Africa were spending time browsing online and on social media. From the get-go, social media has been one of our core marketing strategies and focuses, which had enabled us to establish a strong social media presence long before COVID-19 came about."

"This means that we had a captive audience to market to during some of our country’s toughest months, which enabled us not only to survive – but to thrive through the pandemic. An important factor of how we achieved this would definitely be our pricing. At Positive Pants, we gave women (and men) the option to spoil themselves and their loved ones while not breaking the bank."

We are so humbled to be in the position that we are in, as we are acutely aware that this is not the experience or reality for most other small business owners in our country.

Here is a list of tips that Monie and Roxie have given for future entrepreneurs:

Learn when to ask for help, and when to offer it.
Don’t overcomplicate things! If you have an idea, ambition or goal – just go for it!
Clarity, happiness and innovation are often found in the simplest of things. So, yes do your research and planning, but - once that is done, take the leap – you will find a way to make it work if you really want it.
Last but not least, while networking and resources are crucial to a prosperous life and career, hard work and the right attitude will always be the key to success.

As a fully online, e-commerce business, customers can find Positive Pants online, click here for their website.

Positive Pants can also be found on the following social media platforms: