[title]
[message]Our Story
Welcome to Unwonted Apparel Est. 2018 founded by Kit & Lisa
Before we tell you how we got to the above photo...let us tell you a bit more of why we did this and how we started our company. Our idea for an Alternative Gym clothing line first sparked whilst we were on holiday, climbing up to the top of the Sigiriya, aka 'Lion Rock' in the beautiful country, Sri Lanka.
Here's Lisa looking at the daunting task of climbing the Lion Rock.
Sweating, breathing heavily, trying not to fall off the rickety steps of the 180m ancient rock, we started chatting! We spoke about how we saw our future and what the perfect life would look like.
We knew we wanted to work for ourselves and as we ran a Bootcamp together we were naturally drawn towards fitness. Kit had mentioned about starting an awesome Gym Apparel clothing line, but it wasn't enough, it had been done 1000's of times before!
As we got to the top (trying to smile for a selfie and not look out of breath) Lisa had an epiphany! She said...."why don't we make it Gothic, you know, like all the loud screaming music you listen to". We looked at each other, and both got so excited the ideas started snowballing. We soon realised that you didn't see many Gothic/alternative people in the gym... because there was nothing for them to wear!
During the time at the top of the Lion Rock, we spoke about the all the alternative, gothic, unique, strange, spooky halloween and outright crazy ideas of a Gym clothing line. This was when the ideas of making functional and unique activewear, now known as Unwonted Apparel, was born.
You might be thinking what the hell does the word 'Unwonted' mean?!
Unwonted means to be unusual and rare, being out of the ordinary. We actually stumbled on the word by chance and loved that it sounded like 'unwanted' e.g. unpopular, but actually meant something so weirdly wonderful. The word 'Unwonted' was popular in the Victorian Gothic Era and now we are bringing it back to life! 😜
After we found our mission to help the Alternative and Gothic gym goers, we went to find our samples and get our first batch of designs manufactured!
Lisa testing out the very first pair of Unwonted Apparel's in March 2018.
Our first batch of Unwonted's delivered to us June 2018, how exciting! Our entire company fit on a sofa. The Original Unwonted '13' Collection.
We soon out grew our house in June 2021, taking up our living room, dining room, hallway, and spare bedroom. The house was mayhem to say the least!
This meant it was time to move out our house and into a much larger storeroom, it was nice to have our house back finally!
As Unwonted continued to grow and improve, there were many changes happening in 2024. Including a make over for our logo, a new website, moving out of our storeroom and into a warehouse. With many more new products coming to help our customers look badass and continue to slay their workouts!
We hope our Unwonted active wear and clothing line inspires you to train as hard as possible, whilst looking absolutely incredible, in your very own unique way. Lastly we would like to thank all our awesome customers for the many years of support. Keep conquering your demons!
Much love,
Kit & Lisa 🖤