WodBottom, Empowering Your Booty!
As a woman who works out, well, lets just say a lot, and is in fashion, the boring gym clothes get old really fast! I need something with personally, creativity, will make my butt look good, and if it has a few unicorns, that’s an added bonus! This is how I came across WodBottom, but what I didn’t know is that WodBottom does all those things and is a huge advocate for domestic violence victims. What a beautiful mix. Females in fitness getting stronger, which in turn gives them confidence, helping to fight domestic violence. It is perfect! To learn more about WodBottom, please read Jejune’s exclusive interview below.
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Foreword by Kira Bucca, Editor in Chief of Jejune Magazine.
Where are you based?
Wodbottom is based out of Verona, WI.
I grew up in Verona, but moved away after college. I even moved to Thailand with my two kids for a year. We moved back to the States when I noticed how my daughter was treated compared to my son, and knew I had to bring her back to The States to get away from the general ‘women are not as important’ attitude she experienced…. not that the U.S. doesn’t have A LOT of room for improvement.
How long has WodBottom been around?
WodBottom started in 2015, but WodBottom evolved in the last four years to become what it is now. At the start, we made silicone wedding rings made for weightlifters. Then we made knee sleeves, jump ropes, and a myriad of other items as we were working to find our voice and purpose.
What does WodBottom mean?
WOD stands for Workout Of the Day, a common acronym in CrossFit world. And ‘Bottom’ because if you do your WOD you have good tush in theory. When we first came up with that name, we had no idea what we would become, but we sure liked how the word rolled off the tongue. What we didn’t know is that our name was a foreshadowing for what WodBottom would evolve into, which is creating bottoms with personality.
What inspired you to start WodBottom?
In 2015, my then new fiancé…now husband, was working as a respiratory therapist with crazy hours, and I was running my marketing agency. We both wanted change. We were freshly engaged at the time, and started doing CrossFit together to get in shape for our wedding. So when we started thinking about what business we could start, the ideas largely revolved around love and CrossFit. Silicone rings seemed like a logical thing to create.
The real inspiration for what WodBottom is now came when we made our first pair of shorts for women weight lifters. They were weird, to be honest. We knew nothing about fabrics or anything related to clothes really, but it got us to be more aware of how women were dressing for the gym, and we could see it was a lot of black and boring designs that lacked inspiration and creativity.
And that is when we moved our focus to create the best fitting and coolest designed booty shorts, or shorties, as we like to call them, on the market.
Your patterns are adorable! What influences your designs?
Our first real pair, after the weird shorts I mentioned, were really funny unicorns with a rainbow mane and tail. Because we were just a little start up, we sold these as a pre-order, since we didn’t have the money to make them. Looking back, it is incredible to me that women were willing to buy these from us even though they had no prior experience with our shorts…but the design was gold and we sold out of them while still in pre-order!
To answer your question though, it was the women that ordered these first pairs that influenced our designs moving forward, and still now our customers influence our designs. We often say that WodBottom was built with grassroots support from our passionate customers. We listened to what they talk about, we directly asked what they would like to see, and then we worked to create something clever, creative, and with an attention to detail.
A pretty common question in the office is ‘how can this pattern be better?’ Actually, just last week Than and I were driving back from the Dakota Games, a regional CrossFit competition in Fargo, ND, and came up with an idea for shorts with flamingos. Flamingo shorts have been done. I’ve seen our largest competitor make flamingo shorts at least two times using patterns from Shutterstock or Patternbank, so we knew that our design would have to be extra. After a little fun back and forth conversation, we are now designing a pattern with flamingos with large quads, wearing the same pattern shorts that the pattern is (very M.C. Esher-esk), while some doing goblet squats. We take something we recognize our customers loving, ei flamingos, and ask how can we make the pattern ‘extra’. Extra funny, extra clever, extra beautiful…
Do you market yourself to lifters mostly, or are there other populations you feel your designs are good for?
We definitely have weightlifters and CrossFitters in mind when we design some of our more unique shorts, but we have customers that use them for yoga, running, biking, pole dancing class, obstacle coarse racing, roller derby, etc. Because they are so comfortable and flattering, women and even some men, will wear them to do pretty much any activity.
Do you lift? If so, how did you get into it?
Yes! I love lifting! I love how it makes me feel so strong and capable. But what I love the most is breaking the mold. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than going against the grain. Being the only woman in the weight room is liberating, and I love love seeing women try it out for the first time.
I started my lifting journey by trying CrossFit. Anyone will tell you that CrossFit is fun, but it’s the community we found at PFD CrossFit in Verona that made us fall in love with the sport and with weight lifting. Ironically, our office is in the building next to where it all started!
Can you tell us a bit about DAIS (Domestic Abuse Intervention Services), and why you support them?
DAIS is an incredible non-profit that goes so far beyond raising awareness. They house women, men, and their children who need a safe place to stay when getting out of an abusive situation. They help with creating exit plans, provide ongoing support and counseling, and hold workshops to teach healthy relationships in teens and college students, prevention, and so much more.
I grew up in an abusive household. My biological father was abusive to my mother from the time I was two until my mom finally left him when I was 16. I found myself getting involved in more than one occasion, including charging in on him naked trying to force my mom to have sex. Needless to say, my childhood experience with abuse left a mark that effects me to this day. Though I am proud to say that I took what was bad in my life and turned it into something good.
Both Than and I wholeheartedly believe that the ultimate goal of our life, and our business, is to help as many people as possible. Last winter, we were day dreaming about if we could get on the Ellen show to talk about a collection of clothing where all the proceeds would go to DAIS and how cool that would be. I exclaimed, “that would be so many sales! It would be nuts.” Than said, “Think of how many people that would help!” Actually, it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about that beautiful selfless comment of his.
But back to why we support them. We wanted to support a cause that was personally meaningful, resonate with our customers, and where the non-profit was hands on with the cause. DAIS perfectly fits into this.
Do you feel that domestic violence is an ignored crime?
This is such a complicated answer with so many reasons why it is.
First of all, women (and men too, though women make up 85% of victims) in abusive relationships often feel ashamed of the situation, and abusers often make the victim feel they are the one to blame. So most of the time, abuse will go unreported for a long time. Also, from an outsider’s perspective, if they notice, it’s uncomfortable and most don’t know how to help or if they should help.
Than and I attended a domestic violence training at DAIS and walked in the shoes of women in abusive relationships. We had to make a series of choices for the abused woman, and the result was hopelessly depressing. The woman I had to be in the scenario had no options for escape, no one believed her, and after one failed attempt at getting her kids out safely, finding a place to stay, and getting a job, she returned to her abusive husband. Nothing outlandish was in any scenario. It could have been a woman in my own town, but without help or support, she was trapped. Trapped without options, without money, and without safety for her children.
How does this change? How many support systems would need to be created? How many laws protecting victims need to get passed? It’s an impossible mountain to climb in a country of bureaucracy, red tape, and self interest. It is this mountain that seems so impossible to climb that perpetuates looking the other way and abandoning the ones who need it the most.
The real solution is to change how people think about women, about relationships, and personal autonomy.
What advice would you tell a woman (or a man) in a domestic violence relationship?
That they aren’t alone. Tell someone and reach out for help because most likely someone they know has also been in an abusive relationship. One in four women will experience domestic or dating violence in their lifetime; so, it doesn’t take a lot of looking around to find another woman who can relate and offer help. Feeling alone paralyzes a woman from getting out, but just one person who knows can ease the burden and provide the courage to get help.
Why do you think women’s fitness is so important?
I believe that when women take the time to be healthy, they are subconsciously telling themselves they are worth it. But not all women have the same fitness goals. Some want to have big muscles, some what to have less body fat, it really doesn’t matter. But what does matter is having self-worth and taking the time to do something consistently. In our case, and in WodBottom world, it’s weightlifting. But for others, it might be taking art classes or taking long walks with a friend. Women need to give themselves permission to take time for themselves even when there are millions of other things going on.
There was recently/is still going on a ”shadow ban” circulating Instagram, which is blocking a lot of hashtags from female athletes, including #femalefitness. Can you please tell us your thoughts on this?
I think it is important to know that Instagram is a huge company that isn’t personally banning people or intentionally targeting women in fitness. It’s all based on algorithms. And when a hashtag like #femalefitness gets abused by profiles in inappropriate ways, it ends up hurting people who authenticity use it.
It’s good to remember it’s not personal. It’s just a computer making those decisions based on data.
If profiles are having issues, they should look at the problem logically and find a solution. What other hashtags they are using that may be ‘broken’ and then stop using them. There is a list of banned hashtags people can check to make sure they aren’t setting themselves up for shadow bans.
It’s not a secret that there are a lot of inappropriate posts on Instagram from accounts trying to peddle sex. When innocent hashtags get overrun with inappropriate content, the algorithm takes precautions to limit the use of the hashtag. Simple as that, and not something to get worked up about.
Do you have any celebrities wearing your designs?
Not that I know of, but that would be awesome! One of our customers is Ashley Hawkins. She was on the Titan Games and we all thought that was pretty cool for us…and for her. LOL
Where is the best place to find WodBottom?
We are online all the time at http://wodbottom.com, but we also set up pop-up shops at Wodapalooza in Florida in February, and other regional CrossFit competitions throughout the year.
What is your motto in life?
As our customers know, we love inspirational quotes, and we put a different one on the tag of each pair of shorts. But for me personally, I don’t know if I have a motto as much as I have a way of thinking that keeps me grounded, kind, and humble. And that is to be mindful of other people’s lives. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes in people’s lives. Maybe their life is perfect, but most likely it’s a stressful jumble of negotiating life, family, work, money, and time, just like me. Looking outside of myself has only helped me be more happy, be a better parent, and a better spouse.
Please list any websites and social media you would like Jejune to promote:
http://wodbottom.com
Instagram: wodbottom
Facebook: wodbottom
