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| ▲ andar / CEO Aeryeon Shin | ||
andar is a Korean company that made a big hit with ‘athleisure look’ covering from yoga and pilates to casual sporty wear. Under its motto ‘Stretch Your Story’, the company imbued its lines with differentiated ideas and suggestions that can share the same sentiment by female consumers.
It is not surprising that andar has made a big hit in the market considering the fact that the sources of designs and practically come from nowhere but comments of many yoga and fitness specialists in the field. The company targeted both the look and comfort with simple and tone down colors to attract many hearts of fitness-driven female city dwellers.
Aeryeon Shin, CEO of andar, used to be a yoga instructor during which she developed extensive knowledge alongside the need of improvement of the attire. After years of research and development, she eventually felt the need of establishing andar in 2015 and she is still playing the core role of designing new lines.
Having risen as a new star brand in the leggings market, Shin listed her name in the New Intellectual Awards 2017 and her brand in Venture Enterprise 2018 and Women Enterprise 2019. A series of winning and listing naturally led her to have appeared on various TV shows and she is being welcomed by many related organizations to give a lecture on athleisure market. She also surprised the industry by appearing as the sole Korean athleisure company at the Vancouver Fashion Week S/S 2020.
“andar is quality driven and I myself engage in all quality control process to make sure it is the best quality in the market. As part of this effort, we use our own materials that have passed our strict quality check and we also spend extravagantly on cutting edge spinning machines. All production to distribution are thoroughly controlled by the head office to make sure everything is perfect and we are collaborating with a number of companies to create new trends of sporty attire” said Shin.
andar has seen a steady growth in number of its employees. 160 people are working for the company as of 2019, a 200% increase on last year. The same year, andar listed its named in the Innovation Winner 2019, hosted by the Herald Group and managed by monthly <PowerKorea>, with a ministerial prize from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
In an effort to make stretching and exercise daily, andar is proactively engaging in planning and running ‘office yoga class’ at a number of companies and is determined to increase the number in the coming years.
김선중 기자 cid14@daum.net
