Our History | Flexars
The Story of Flexars - Established 2016.
Hi, I'm Loraine Bicknell, MD for Flexars and this is how I came up with the idea for Flexars.
One day, almost 7 years ago, my youngest daughter, Charlotte, came down the stairs to go to the stables and the zip had broken on yet another pair of jodhpurs. I thought there must be a better option out there…. a pair of leggings that can be used for riding and any other activities, after all, leggings are used by so many people around the World.
I wanted something comfortable, hard-wearing and suitable for men and women, boys and girls, of all ages and sizes. It took me and my daughters over a year to design them, find the fabric and most importantly, find a manufacturer to make them. After we had found all three, and after roping in my eldest daughter and her boyfriend to create and manage the website and social media channels, we were ready to launch.
After selling for a couple of months online, we found our first trade show to go to, the West country Equine Fair down in Exeter. Pulling in a few friends, and family members who were willing to work for free (because you know, starting a business is extremely expensive), we hired a van and made the 4 hour trip down south to the show. We really weren’t expecting much from it, as we had never done anything like this before.
The show was a great success - everyone who tried on a pair, bought them. More people were finding out about Flexars and it was a great feeling knowing that people around the UK were now wearing their very own pair of Flexars and loving them as much as we do.
We knew from that point on that these weren’t ordinary leggings that we had designed. They were inclusive. We had women of all ages, sizes and shapes, all wanting to try a pair on (that dressing room was the best thing we ever bought!). And the best thing of all, was the smile on peoples faces when they came out of the dressing room, they had finally found a pair of leggings that made them feel comfortable, confident and beautiful.
We then had an idea, why not take photos of women in the five different sizes that we offer, XS - XL, to truly show to our online audience why Flexars were different. We understood that not all women look like they do in magazines or on television, some of us have large thighs and round tummies, or large calves and a small waist, or a large backside and a small waist, and that was okay. Flexars were designed to adapt to all different body types, having been made from 17 different panels of material. We needed the online audience to trust us.
We then attended Royal Windsor Horse Show in May, another successful show with even more customers. But, the pinnacle of last year had to be when we returned to the West country Equine Fair in December. We had a massive poster made, which covered an entire wall, with our Shape of Beauty ladies on it. This, along with a couple of other improvements to our stand, enabled us to win the ‘Stand of the Year’ award - we were absolutely chuffed. Even if we didn’t sell any pairs of Flexars that day, we would have gone home extremely happy. Moving on from that, after our first big Christmas, we went to Royal Windsor Horse show again, and can you believe it - we won the ‘Retailer of the Year’ award. Our little business! Winning that amazing award, again we were so over the moon.
We are now selling Flexars in another two sizes and two lengths and have added some new countries, Japan and the USA. We are also looking for new distributors and agents/dealers all over the World.
We are so proud of our achievements so far and really are looking forward to the next 7 years, who knows how far we will have come then!
Thank you everyone for your support and if you haven't tried them, why not?
Loraine
