PE Nation going ‘cleaner’ and ‘minimal’ to appeal to an ageing market

A few months since PE Nation figurehead Pip Edwards stepped away from the brand, the Aussie athleisure label has taken a new direction.

Olivia Lines (left) and Aroha Atkinson wearing the new range from PE Nation at Bondi Beach. Picture: Jonathan Ng

A few months since PE Nation figurehead Pip Edwards stepped away from the brand, the Aussie athleisure label has taken a new direction.

Chief executive Hamish Stuart told Confidential the brand is going “cleaner” and “minimal” to appeal to an ageing market as PE Nation opened a new pop-up store in Bondi.

He said it is important to recognise that the company’s faithful customer is now in a “different stage of their lives” and is “wearing the product differently.”

“There’s also a new younger customer who is doing things differently than what the original customer did 10 years ago,” he said.

“We are just three months into the actual delivery of this repositioning, but we are seeing some really positive results from it.”

PE Nation founders Claire Tregoning and Pip Edwards. Picture: James Gourley/Getty Images

Six months before Edwards departure, co-founder Claire Tregoning also left the business.

“When (PE Nation) launched, the success they had was very much on this tomboy, urban street sort of product. You’re talking about a lot of colour splicing, animal prints, and multilayer graphics. It was busy. The product was busy,” Stuart said.

“What the girls built over the last nine years has been amazing, but the customer is looking for something different. The customer is in a different phase of their life, they’re wanting things that are a little more cleaner, a little more minimal, but still sophisticated, and still having that element or pop of colour, an element of PE, the DNA of the brand.”

PE Nation’s Summer Pop-Up Boutique gave away sweaters to the first 200 guests.

Do you have a story for The Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email [e-mail]