Seattle Business SE AT T L E B U SI NESSM A G .COM
THE LONG RUN SALLY BERGESEN’S COMPANY, OISELLE, IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST APPAREL
ZOOM DOCTOR
TELEMEDICINE IS HERE TO STAY
GOT A MINUTE?
WORKING FROM HOME IS NOT THE SAME AS A VACATION
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P O R T R A I T by H AY L E Y Y O U N G
HITTING HER STRIDE Sally Bergesen built a business around running and athleisure wear, but there’s nothing casual about her activism By Heidi Mills
W
hen professional long-distance runner Kara Goucher signed with Seattle women’s running apparel company Oiselle, she was shocked by one of their first conversations. Oiselle CEO Sally Bergesen asked Goucher what issues she wanted to talk about. Goucher, who had been a Nike-sponsored athlete, didn’t immediately know how to respond. With Nike, she’d been told exactly what she should tweet and say. The idea that a sponsor wanted her to speak her mind — even if it was to talk about uncomfortable
or controversial topics — was astonishing. “I’d never, ever spoken out before,” Goucher says. “Sally and Oiselle changed me in such a profound way. The voice I have is because they encouraged me to find it.” At Oiselle, women speak their mind. That’s the message Bergesen gives not only to her athletes, but also to the thousands of women who buy her clothes. She isn’t afraid to pick a fight, be it with Nike, USA Track & Field (USATF) — the national governing body for track and field, cross country and road running — or the maledominated New York Times sports section. S E AT T L E BU S I N E SS
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H I T T I NG H E R ST R I DE
To Bergesen, Oiselle is a feminist brand that stands for body autonomy, equal pay, diversity and inclusivity. “Sally speaks out without any hesitation or worry about what people will think about it,” Goucher notes. “For me, that was really inspirational.” To be sure, Bergesen also must weigh the consequences of alienating potential customers by taking controversial stances. For example, in the summer of 2019, Oiselle debuted its “Women Up” collection. The line of clothing featured the female gender symbol, and all proceeds from August sales went to Planned Parenthood. Bergesen knows that some of the women who buy Oiselle are not pro-choice, but she and her staff decided that supporting a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body was more important than staying politically neutral. “There’s more at stake for Sally when she speaks out, so it’s more brave when she does it,” says Lauren Fleshman, a former Oiselle elite runner and head coach of Littlewing Athletics, Oiselle’s professional running team. “Her entire business is on the line. People will spend dollars online to support or punish her.” Bergesen did not launch Oiselle to become a disruptor. When she started the company in 2008, she just wanted to give women a better-fitting pair of running shorts. In the early years, all of her energy went to launching the brand while simultaneously keeping her day job writing copy for Microsoft. “You lose money for a long time,” she says of starting a company. Bergesen leaned on her husband, a high school English teacher, to juggle parenting responsibilities for their two young girls, who were just 4 and 7 at the time. He took over many of the household jobs that traditionally fall to women. “He’s always been like, ‘Go, honey,’” Bergesen says. “He has no qualms about me being a breadwinner.” Eventually, as Oiselle’s sales grew, Bergesen made the company her full-time gig, found office space and built a staff. Oiselle has been profitable for the past two years, and sales grew in the double digits in the past year, Bergesen says. Her move toward activism came as Oiselle began to sponsor professional athletes and she learned more about the track and field world. She discovered that Nike provides the majority of funding for USA Track & 50 / S E AT T L E BU S I N E SS
Field, meaning the sports giant controls most governing decisions. “Nike runs it like mini mobsters,” Bergesen says. “When you have enough money and power, that becomes acceptable.”
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ergesen’s frustration grew when Oiselle athletes competed in the Olympic Trials. She discovered that the Oiselle logo could take up only 30 square centimeters on the singlet, rendering a brand almost invisible. At the Olympics, it was even worse. Nike owns the national team uniforms, so athletes can’t wear their sponsors’ logo at all. The restrictions mean small brands struggle to promote their clothing, and athletes can’t make money advertising their sponsor. Bergesen realized the full extent of the restrictions when her staff posted photos on Instagram and Twitter of Oiselle-sponsored athlete Kate Grace winning the 80- meter race at the 2016 Olympic Trials. The pictures of an elated Grace were meant to celebrate the moment.
“After having taken many stands, I get it,” Bergesen says. “It’s easier to not. But I think when you are a woman, you learn pretty quickly that you need to call out systemic imbalances. I take it as my personal responsibility.” While speaking out can cost a company business, the rewards can be equally great. Labeling Oiselle as a feminist company sets it apart from other athletic brands and makes some fans more loyal. Women come up to Bergesen and tell her, “I love what you stand for.” Lorne Richmond, CEO of Seattle’s Richmond Public Relations, agrees that businesses that take a stand can benefit by aligning themselves with a certain portion of the market. “There’s always risk involved, but there’s also an authenticity to a business that feels a certain way and backs up everything they say through their actions,” he notes. While Bergesen didn’t start Oiselle as an activist brand, she’s never been afraid to have an opinion. She was no stranger to protest
“THERE’S ALWAYS RISK INVOLVED, BUT THERE’S ALSO AN AUTHENTICITY TO A BUSINESS THAT FEELS A CERTAIN WAY AND BACKS UP EVERYTHING THEY SAY THROUGH THEIR ACTIONS.” But soon after, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent Bergesen a cease-and-desist letter. The committee said that since the photos showed Grace wearing an Oiselle kilt with a bib with the Olympic rings, Oiselle made it appear as if it was involved in Olympicrelated advertising. Bergesen was told that Nike is the only brand that can represent Team USA. Oiselle had spent $300,000 during the past years to pay Grace’s salary as she worked toward that moment yet couldn’t advertise her greatest victory. Bergesen couldn’t stay silent while observing injustices in both the running world and women’s rights in general. She knew that as a small-business owner, she wasn’t taking the easy path. She’d worked as a brand strategist before leading Oiselle, and observed that most businesses weren’t willing to take a stand.
growing up in Berkeley, California. An old family video shows her mother protesting in People’s Park while Bergesen, then a baby, sits beside her in a stroller. Her father was a civil rights lawyer who spent his career fighting for equality in Mississippi and then California. “He taught me to challenge authority,” Bergesen says. Bergesen now serves as an inspiration for female protesters in her own family and company. She took her daughters to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., sleeping on the living room floor of an Oiselle teammate’s house. At Oiselle, she encourages her staff members and athletes to have an opinion. As one of Oiselle’s most vocal athletes, Fleshman speaks out about female body health, women’s equality and athlete doping. She became a board member at USATF
to attempt to fight Nike’s dominance in the organization. Fleshman is a writer and Stanford graduate in addition to a runner, and she’s used her prose to express powerful opinions on her own blog, in The New York Times and on social media. “Seven years of working with an outspoken, feminist company has solidified the importance of standing for something,” Fleshman says. Goucher has become an activist in her own right, speaking out against Nike’s Oregon Project and her former coach, Alberto Salazar, who has been sanctioned for doping offenses involving athletes he was training. She continues to testify about the team’s use of performance enhancing drugs and Salazar’s treatment of the team. Goucher plans to write a book that will go in to further detail on her experiences with Nike. When Goucher first met with Oiselle, she told company executives of the accusations she planned to make public and let them know it would be controversial. “They said, ‘Good for you,’” Goucher recalls. “They said, ‘We have your back.’ They were so supportive.” The Oiselle women use social media to support causes and advocate change. Bergesen has been a fan of Twitter for more than a decade, and appreciates how the platform favors short, pithy copy. She’s not afraid to express opinions online, and that’s meant she’s at times received strong reactions. When it’s clear someone is more interested in trolling than exchanging ideas, Bergesen mutes them. But in some instances, feedback made her realize she should take a step back and reconsider her opinion. Tweets about leaving cell phones at home while jogging and running outside rather than on a treadmill drew criticism of privilege and snobbery. In those instances, Bergesen realized she’d overstepped and said so. The Oiselle social media accounts have also come under fire. During the 2016 presidential election, the brand posted a photo on Instagram of an employee wearing a Nasty Gal T-shirt. A number of followers wrote back. “I used to love your brand and now I don’t.” “Why don’t you stay out of politics and stick to running clothes?” “I’m never buying Oiselle again.” “We got a lot of hate,” Bergesen says. “But we decided that we are a feminist brand, and as such, we stand for certain things.” As another contentious presidential election
nears, Bergesen has been brainstorming ideas to promote voting and speaking out for what matters. Oiselle is trying to put together a running relay race that goes from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., with voter awareness and registration as its mission. The race would pass historic landmarks and colleges. Oiselle has already taken its pro-women message on the road this year. In February, the company attended the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta. After the event, it hosted a fashion runway show that included shirts bearing the message: “My body, my right. My body, my strength. My body, my freedom.” “We can do a lot to be a positive force in the sport,” Bergesen says. The positivity can be seen in the way Oiselle celebrates the female running body. Fleshman recalled an advertising campaign where she and other runners completed a hard workout, and then posed for photos while flushed, blotchy, and with messy hair and sweat marks. In 2013 and 2014, Oiselle brought real athletes dressed in Oiselle gear to walk the runway in New York Fashion Week. “We had a hammer thrower on the runway,” Fleshman says. Odes to powerful women can be found everywhere in Oiselle headquarters. The company moved in June 2019 from a small office near Green Lake to a former military building in Magnuson Park with room for photo shoots, physical therapy, clothing design, fabrics and plenty of pro-female art. In the lunchroom hangs a drawing of Princess Leia with a gun and the words “I Don’t Need Rescuing.” The Oiselle community bookshelf includes titles such as We Should All Be Feminists and Women and Power: A Manifesto. Of course, feminism shares center stage with running at Oiselle. The walls are adorned with photos and news articles about Oiselle athletes and female runners. Bergesen makes running a regular part of her workday at Oiselle, and most of her 22 staff members do the same. She admits she’s never been a morning person, so she usually runs in the late afternoon, finding time on the Burke-Gilman Trail the perfect way to turn off her brain. Running has always been a savior for her. Back when she was in her early 20s and partying all the time, running gave her the strength to figure out what to do with her life. These days, running keeps her sane while running a business and standing up for what matters.
RUNNER’S WORLD OISELLE has managed to maintain its momentum in both sales and activism during the pandemic. Though brick-andmortar retailers canceled orders for Oiselle gear when stores were forced to close, the company does 70 percent of its revenue through direct online sales. The warehouse never closed, enabling Oiselle to keep shipping its products, and CEO Sally Bergesen found that more people were buying running clothes than ever before. “The crazy part is that our business really started to take off in mid-April,” Bergesen says. “We’ve actually seen a big jump in our online sales.” As gyms and swimming pools closed, running remained one activity people could safely continue to do throughout the pandemic. In addition, office workers suddenly stuck at home looked for comfortable clothing, and Bergesen saw a jump in the company’s athleisure wear. “I’ve always felt athletic clothing has the potential to cross over into day-to-day clothing, and now more than ever that is possible,” Bergesen says. Oiselle has also responded to the Black Lives Matter movement in recent months. The company signed Black activist and Harlem Run group founder Alison Désir as an athlete-adviser and created a new advisory group that includes a number of people of color. “As a feminist brand,” Bergesen says, “we want to be part of the work on Black Lives Matter.” — heidi mills
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EDITED AND CONDENSED BY ROB SMITH
LEADERSHIP: The most successful lead-
ers are trustworthy, vulnerable and mission driven. They have plenty of grit and resilience to help their teams get through tough times. I also value transparency, kindness and humility. Arrogance, which is often interpreted as confidence, is hugely overrated. I have seen plenty of confident but not capable leaders fail because of an unwillingness to listen and learn. Decisiveness is good, but not when it trumps curiosity. CHALLENGES: It’s a blend of not see-
ing yourself as a leader. You must see it to be it. That presents a lot of hurdles. I am optimistic today because we have more women in leadership roles and more women entrepreneurs. But women too often face a double bind. When a man demonstrates leadership qualities he’s praised. When a woman does, she is often told to try being less aggressive and more assertive. Women are plagued by intangible feedback like this throughout their careers. It is both gendered and unactionable. PROMINENCE: First, we need organizations
TRUE GRIT
Janicki Bioenergy’s high-tech waste treatment seems a boon for developing countries. Now comes the hard part: Convincing local municipalities that it’ll work too.to Author and entrepreneur Mikaela Kiner urgeshere, women by when Patrick ‘see it to be it’ itMarshall comes to leadership
A
conversation mikaela kiner had with a prominent Seattle-area woman business executive convinced her that she needed to do whatever she could to create healthy and inclusive communication. So Kiner, an internationally certified executive coach as well as the founder and CEO of Seattle-based workplace consultancy Reverb, decided to write a book full of practical examples and checklists to help women navigate difficult issues in the workplace. Published late last year, "Female Firebrands: Stories and Techniques to Ignite Change, Take Control, and Succeed in the Workplace," is meant as a practical and actionable guide to help women advocate for themselves and others in both professional and nonprofessional settings. The book examines the stories of 13 professional women who’ve overcome bias and stereotypes to build their careers. Prior to founding Reverb in 2015, Kiner spent some 15 years in HR leadership roles with major companies like Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp., Amazon Inc. and Redfin. Reverb employs seven full-time workers and 35 contractors.
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LESSONS LEARNED: So many! Ask for what
you’re worth; it’s probably 25% more than you think. Advocating for other women is powerful, so use your voice and position to open doors for others. If you are open and vulnerable with your team members, they will do the same for you.
ADVICE: Know your values and boundar-
ies, and make sure you choose to work with companies and leaders who are in alignment. At a leadership level, a values disconnect
COURTESY OF MIKAELA KINER
DARING WOMEN
to lean into the knowledge that more women in leadership means more revenue, more profits and more innovation. The onus is on companies to seek out and develop women, beginning early in the pipeline. Government and education also have a role to play. Societal and organizational change can be slow, so I like to give women tools, too. As women, we can increase our confidence, improve our negotiation skills and ask for what we’re worth. One strong indicator that leads to a high degree of personal and professional success is when girls participate in sports throughout middle and high school, so keep your girls playing! Women should seek out mentors and sponsors, take advantage of training and development, invest in themselves and chart their career paths.
QUOTE/UNQUOTE
can be the biggest cause of dissatisfaction. Invest in yourself and the talented people around you. Don’t be afraid to hire people smarter than you, or you will burn out. Work continuously to create a healthy, inclusive culture where all voices and identities are welcome and valued. Create the organization you want to be a part of.
“I look forward to a time when we can address this pandemic as a national crisis in a coordinated way, based on science and not politics. I am hopeful we can reach that goal, but I fear things will worsen in our country and many more will die before we become enlightened.” —Nancy Giunto, executive director, Washington Health Alliance
NETWORKING: It’s huge. I never net-
worked intentionally until I started my business five years ago. But I networked unintentionally because I enjoy keeping in touch with people I respect and admire. Networking is nothing to be afraid of and it does not have to feel salesy or inauthentic. Many of the best experiences, jobs and opportunities come to you through your network. Networking today is part of my day job. I regularly attend events related to women and girls in tech, closing the pay gap and all things startup. I meet people through causes I care about — serving on the board of Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST) and sponsoring companies like the Female Founders Alliance. Go where your purpose takes you and you’ll meet others with a similar mission. DO DIFFERENTLY: I might have planned
out my own career path, something I never did formally. If I could go back, I would have explored more job rotations early on and done an international assignment sooner than I did. I would have established firm boundaries early about work hours, as well as when and how quickly I respond to email. UNWIND: If my kids have a climbing com-
petition or soccer game, that’s where I’ll be. Second to that, probably at home or in a favorite coffee shop like Empire Espresso reading a good book. I just finished "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid. AUTOBIOGRAPHY TITLE: Benevolence
COURTESY OF MIKAELA KINER
and Brute Force — subtitle TBD.
THE BIG NUMBER
$255 million
The amount Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc. reported it lost in its fiscal second quarter, a 53% drop in sales.
Source: nordstrom
S TAT S H O T
REMOTE REALITY
Remote working has the potential to dramatically alter the economy as the pandemic continues, and workers are changing how they view their personal and professional lives. Information below was compiled in August.
47,000
Jobs lost in downtown Seattle due to Covid-19 shutdowns the first half of 2020
20,000
Jobs that are not coming back
585,000
Upward estimate of the number of jobs the entire Puget Sound region will lose by the end of 2020
43 Percentage of jobs across Washington state considered permanent layoffs, according to notices filed with the state
89 Percentage of Seattle employers who say that some portion of their employees are working remotely
meet a daring woman; be a daring woman.
To read more Daring Women interviews or to submit your own answers to our questionnaire, visit seattlebusinessmag.com.
75
Percentage of Seattle workers who say they’re working from home
50
Percentage of Seattle residents who say they would move away from the city if remote working allowed them to do so
77
Percentage increase in closed home sales in San Juan County as workers move further away from the city.
308,000
Square feet in new office leases in downtown Seattle in the second quarter, the lowest since 2009.
5.5
Percentage of office rent decreases in downtown Seattle expected by early 2021
12.8
Percentage of apartment vacancy rates in downtown Seattle by the end of 2021
SOURCES: Downtown Seattle Association, CoStar Group, Redfin, Elucd,
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