PeachyLean, the Athleisture wear company that is fast becoming the No 1 Global Female Empowerment Brand.
PeachyLean is an Athleisure wear/female empowerment brand, founded in 2018 by Sharon Keegan. Sharon started the company in 2018 after she failed to find suitable supportive active wear after the birth of her first son Liam.
Since then the Dublin woman has grown the company into an award winning female led scale up selling her products all over the world. PeachyLean & Sharon are LEO Dublin City’s “Leading Light” representation for the National Women’s Enterprise Day, which helps inspire other female entrepreneurs in Ireland.
Sharon is a sassy self-starter who knows that her leggings help women find their inner confidence and slay their own dragons.
She is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship - particularly in females as she has encountered varying levels of rejection and sexism on her journey to build Peachy Lean.
She has learnt to laugh at herself, love herself and seeks to help others on their journey.
Inspired by empowerment
Sharon has always had a nose for business and an appetite for innovation. Suffering from postnatal depression on Liam, she went back to study a post grad in Innovation at UCD, exploring several avenues of product market fit. She finally settled on Peachy Lean after testing an early version of what would become her famous supportive spandex and nylon leggings.
Previous to her pregnancy Sharon built and ran the Irish arm of UK brand Pieminister, growing the business exponentially over five years.
Before that she launched St. Tropez tanning brand into Ireland and spent years cutting her teeth in the Golden Pages.
“Peachylean was set up at a time in my life when I needed support. I myself needed support, confidence and to feel empowered. At the time I couldn’t find it , so, I designed it and made it happen. On my journey through business I have found so much supports within the female entrepreneurship space from the LEO Enterprise who gave me my first leg up and support on my journey into Business and introduced me to Enterprise Ireland and its various investment programmes who are now partners in Peachylean ltd”, explains Sharon.
Challenges & Opportunities
Despite huge personal and professional challenges, including the tragic death of her brother in March 2020 she recently appeared on BBC Dragon's Den, securing investment from three dragons of £100,000.
“Covid 19 was such a momentous challenge for so many business around the world. Remote working ,closures of schools, shops, restaurants, lockdown periods, all extremely difficult for so many. On a personal level we lost family over this period and so dealing with grief, home-schooling a 2 year old and 6 year old while managing a business, all rolled into a global pandemic and lockdown was a huge test to my character. Thankfully, our business soared and took off on a massive scale. We’ve see huge growth of 600% Year on Year. I tread carefully here, as it was a difficult time for so many and I am aware of others who has lost so much in the past 16 months”, adds Sharon.
PeachyLean were the winners of the Small Firm Associations “New Emerging Business Award”. The business has grown from strength to strength since its launch in 2018. Due to the rapid growth year on, PeachyLean is now launching into new, exciting markets including ; the UK, US, UAE and AUS.
LEO Supports
PeachyLean availed of various supports from LEO Dublin City, “I just want to say thank you to the LEO for your epic support and trojan work over the past 16 months supporting and helping us through these difficult times. I will be forever grateful for your help and advice and introductions, you’re a big part in our Peachylean story”, says Sharon.
The supports PeachyLean availed of includes;
- Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters (TAME)
- Priming Grant
- Trading Online Voucher
Sharon adds, “We were extremely lucky to receive a grant for TOV which we spent on a new website for our launch into the UK market alongside the airing of the BBC Dragons DEN.”
2021 & beyond
PeachyLean is scaling at present and see a huge opportunity for growth in the US market.
Sharon is also focusing on female empowerment and says “Peachylean will be the education platform that helps to empower women to love oneself.
We will be the No1 female empowerment Brand across the globe in the next 5 years.
We see digital experience as part of our rollout in Q4 of this year where women in our community can come and gather and learn from each other.”
The world is PeachyLean's oyster, for sure.
Contact
- www.peachylean.com
- www.instagram.com/peachyleanofficial
- www.instagram.com/lovepeachylean
- www.facebook.com/peachyleanofficial
- www.twitter.com/peachyleanlove
