Q&A: Oner Active founder Krissy Cela talks defining the activewear market, building customer loyalty and opening retail stores

First founded in 2020 by Krissy Cela, Oner Active was created following Cela’s personal struggle finding activewear that made her feel confident in the gym. And so a determination to build a brand that offered activewear to both empower and support women while weight training meant that Oner Active was born.

It would be fair to agree with Oner Active that it remains a “young and fast-growing company”, with turnover in its most recent financial update for the 2023 financial year having exceeded £45m and Instagram followers now sitting at more than 1 million.

With 2024 having also marked its biggest Black Friday, seeing sales up 118% year on year, this brand really is taking the activewear market by storm. And in a saturated and increasingly competitive space, that’s no mean feat.

The first to admit it is “not perfect”, Oner Active values transparency across its supply chain, with manufacturing currently taking place across Turkey, China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, and currently working towards a goal for all packaging to be 100% recyclable by 2026. Cela is passionate about Oner Active being a brand designed by women for women and she chats to Retail Week about standing out from the crowd, living up to customer expectations and her goals for bringing Oner Active to life in the form of bricks-and-mortar retail.

How do you manage to differentiate in a saturated market?

Oner Active has been growing 100% year on year, with no paid acquisition and all organic reach. I didn’t ever anticipate it [growth] but I always knew that Oner would become a legendary brand for women because of how much we as a team care about what we put out there. Does the world need more leggings? Maybe not. But does it need a legging that makes you feel confident and enhances what you work for, yes.

I don’t necessarily think we follow trends. Following trends can make it feel like you become a fast-fashion brand, which is something we don’t want to do, and the other factor is that trends come and go. There is an it-girl today and a strong girl tomorrow. With Oner Active it is about timeless pieces that defy the status quo.

We want to enhance everything people have worked for rather than supress it. It is also about colour options and ranges, which is something that we are really proud of. In 2021, I introduced something called the colour formula internally to my design team, that colour formula was very important to me because I wanted to ensure there was a shade of every colour for everyone. This is where you have a core colour, a pastel and a pop. Regardless of what shade you get the pieces will mix and match or you can buy a uniformed set. I think that is definitely something different that brands don’t necessarily do. I think the fact that Oner is founded and designed by women for women is something that is really tasteful.”

How important is accessibility in terms of price?

I think you can get quality with a mid-price point, a lot of things are priced up for no reason. Our margins remain healthy and our quality remains good, but it’s also about working with suppliers that understand your vision and seeing them more as a collaboration rather than a demand. I think that’s very important.

We also have a rigorous design criteria so unless we are going through each step and meticulously looking at everything, we are constantly trying to make it better so quality control is a big one. Sometimes you may mess up but by being transparent as a brand and seeing what you can do to better that customer’s experience is important. It’s all about how you manage it and move forward.

I think that’s why our customers are so loyal because they see how loyal we are to them in making it better. That and also we have a very meticulous design and product team that really really care about the brand. We are cutthroat about things being right.

How do you acquire new customers in today’s market?

I think it’s all about who we connect with and our influencer marketing is very important. Ironically all of our influencers and followers with large platforms have bought Oner themselves. All of the influencers that have been seen in Oner have bought the products themselves because it makes them feel really good, we haven’t had to gift them. They became natural brand ambassadors and now we want to take it to the next level by giving them style edits, affiliation links and really working with them on campaigns that connect with their community. We have some great activations popping up across London, LA, New York, that people are going to be really interested in.

We want to give women a community and fundamentally with our brand it’s about our purpose. Our mission is to get as many women as possible to move their bodies. Women need to be more present in gym. We need more presence in schools and to offer more for young girls. If we can work together to get that message out through our activewear I think that is the most important thing that Oner can do.

What’s next for Oner?

The US is our biggest market, which is always the hardest market to tap into, this is followed by the UK and Europe. I think really honing in on to the US and being visible across the states rather than just a couple is really important. We also want to bring more experiences to London and make sure we never forget our home.

Our goal is by 2026 to have retail stores, but have our retail space with a gym in it, that is my ultimate goal. So you could come and workout but also buy Oner and then have a coffee afterwards. Selfishly, that’s what my dream day would be to go and workout and wear an Oner set and have a coffee with my best friend so that’s what we’re going to bring to life. Oner is all about community so why not do that in a space that you can control in the form of an Oner shop.