Next-door-neighbours turn $20k into $2 million business

Stevie Angel and Nadia Tucker were building their business when a surprise message from a famous Aussie changed everything.

When they couldn’t find a decent pair of exercise tights that fitted the way they wanted, two Brisbane besties took it upon themselves to create their own in 2016.

By the time their label, Active Truth, turned two, they were turning over $2 million.

Set up by Stevie Angel and Nadia Tucker, both 38, who coincidentally moved into adjoining Brisbane duplexes on the same day in 2011, back then they could never have foreseen how much life was about to change.

Both cradling baby boys, the pair were soon settled in Stevie’s living room sharing tea and bonding over motherhood, a love of fitness and adjusting to their new lives in Brisbane.

But it wasn’t until they each had second babies that they stumbled on a business idea that would change the course of their lives — the lack of decent-fitting exercise tights to support them as they rebuilt their post-natal fitness.

The two mums stumbled onto their business idea after both had a second child. Picture: Supplied

Online orders kept arriving see-through or with a tendency to fall down, while getting into an actual store to try on a pair was next to impossible with newborns and toddlers to wrangle.

“Talking to friends and family, it was clear that we weren’t the only ones feeling that way,” Angel recalls.

“Particularly our friends that were not fitting into standard sizes — they were having a much harder time buying activewear than we were and it became a huge barrier to (exercise) participation because they didn’t feel that they belonged in a gym because they didn’t have the clothing to support them to do so.”

So they decided to do something about it, each investing $10,000 and spending a year creating the perfect pair of tights before launching Active Truth in 2016.

Unlike many other activewear brands, their sizes run from eight to 26, including maternity, and are committed to featuring diverse models and never Photoshopping or retouching them.

“I worked in communications and Nadia was a litigation lawyer — neither of us had any background in business, fashion or in eCommerce. There was a lot of googling!” Angel recalls.

“We were still working our day jobs when we started Active Truth with 100 pairs of tights and a homemade website.”

YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH

But not everyone believed in their idea at first. One accountant scoffed at their $300,000 revenue goal for the first year (they made it in the first nine months), while many manufacturers refused their request to use different patterns for each size of tights to ensure it performed right for each sized woman.

“We didn’t just want to have a size eight (sample) and just size up with each grade — we wanted each size to reflect the changes in body shapes as you go through different sizes. People looked at us like we were crazy,” Tucker says.

The pair eventually found the right suppliers and it quickly became clear staying true to their vision was worth it, with customers multiplying as word spread about their comfortable, supportive activewear.

“We were ridiculously busy — I’d put the boys to bed, and then I’d pack orders through the night,” Tucker says.

“Stevie would post on social media and respond to customers on the commute to and from work and school drop-off.”

SPREADING THE WORD

They concentrated most of their marketing efforts on social media, building a loyal following and getting their products to Brisbane influencers to get the word out.

“Social media was definitely where it was at for us because we had no money,” Angel recalls.

“One of the big turning points of the business was when beauty entrepreneur and author Zoë Foster Blake wrote a blog post talking about her favourite pregnancy products, and we were on her list.

“Our phones started going ‘ding ding ding’ and we saw a significant increase in sales.”

Fast-forward three years from the launch and Active Truth continues to go gangbusters, having sold more than 50,000 pairs of tights.

The business has moved from their kitchen bench to their own office and they looking to add two new positions to their team of four employees.

“We want to be a brand that is customer-centric and be the leaders in diversity, inclusivity and positivity,” Tucker says.

“Every time that we have a decision to make, whether it’s about the products or accounting or the models we’re using, we come back to that vision and ask, ‘Does this decision align with these values?’”